A Novel Reaction of Primary Amines with Trichloroacetonitrile
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A NOVEL REACTION OF PRIMARY AMINES WITH TRICHLOROACETONITRILE by John Constantin Grivas A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research of McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science McGill University Montreal, Canada April 1957 AC~ The author gratefully acknowledges the guidance given by Dr. A. Taurins who directed this work. TABLE OF CONI'ENI'S GENERAL IID'RODUCTION ••• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •••• 1 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 2 Amidines: Nomenclature and classification • • • • • • • • • 2 Preparations from nitriles and amines • • • • • • 3 The chemistry of trichloroacetonitrile • • • • • • • • • • 20 Reaction of P,Yridine with bromine • • • • • • • • • • • • • 24 Pyridine perbromides as brominating agents • • • • • • • • 27 DISCUSSION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 30 Reaction of primary amines with trichloroacetonitrile • • • 30 Aspects or the reaction mechanism • • • • • • • • • • • • • 36 E:trect or N-substituted trichloroacetamidines on the skin • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 43 Reaction of pyridine dibromide with aniline • • • • • • • • 44 Correlation between the infrared spectra and the structure of N-substituted trichloroacetamidines • • • • 47 EXPERIMENTAL • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 56 Preparations of: Ethyl trichloroacetate • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 56 2,2,2-Trichloroacetamide • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 56 Trichloroacetonitrile • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 57 N-phenyltrichloroacetamidine • • • • • • • • • • • • • 57 N-phenyltrichloroacetamidine hydrochloride • • • • • • 5S N-methyltrichloroacetamine • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 5S N-methyltrichloroacetamidinium picrate • • • • • • • • 59 N-ethyltrichloroacetamidine • • • • • • • • • • • • • 59 N-ethyltrichloroacetamidine bydrochloride • • • • • • 60 N-benz.yltrichloroacetamidine • • • • • • • • • • • • • 61 Methylamine hydrochloride and trichloro- acetonitrile • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 62 Ethylamine hydrochloride and trichloro- acetonitrile • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 62 Reaction of trichloroacetonitrile and hydrazine • • • 63 Preparation of pyridine dibromide: In acetonitrile • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 64 In carbon tetrachloride • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 65 Reaction of p,yridine dibromide with aniline • • • • • • • • 65 TABLE OF CON'l'Em'S (ii) Preparation of: 2,4,6-Tribromoacetanilide • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 67 2,4,6-Tribromobenzanilide • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 67 2,4,6-Tribromoformanilide • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 67 Infrared absorption spectra • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • SUMMARY AND CON'l'RIBUTIONS TO Knll.EDGE • • • • • • • • • • • • • BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 74 GENERAL INTRODUCTION The addition of free amines to the nitrile group of trichloro acetonitrile CCl.3 C=N is not mentioned in any reviews or textboolœ summarizing the general chemical properties of nitriles. The reason for this is that this reaction bas not been described in any chemical jour nal. It has been mentioned only in the German Patent 671,785 (1939), which states that the reaction has been carried out under anhydrous conditions at low temperature. We round that trichloroacetonit!ile reacts with primary and secondary aliphatic, aromatic and heterocyclic amines at mild conditions without any catalysts, even in dilute solutions at room temperature. There are no side-products of reactions, and the products formed are of high purity and uniformity. The objective of the first phase of this research was to stuqy the preparation and characterization of N-substituted trichloro acetamidines by the interaction of several primary amines, on trichloro acetonitrile, and to record the infrared spectra of these synthetic products. There are plans to continue this work by extending the scope of reaction to various secondary and heterocyclic amines. Another angle of research will be the physical-organic stuqy of the kinetics of this reaction, and the kinetics of hydrolysis of the new N-substituted trichloroacetamidine~. The other problem in this research was to stuqy the interaction of pyridine dibromide with aniline in acetonitrile solution. 2. HISTORICAL AMIDINES Nomenclature and Classification Amidines are monoacid bases characterized by the formula (I) N-R' R" R-~-N/ (I) 'R,nt where R, R', Rtt, Rttt are hydrogen, al~l or ar,yl radicals and their substitution products. In general, an amidine is named after the acid or amide which may be obtained from it by hydrolysis, according to the system employed in the Chemical Abstracts; thus (II) is acetamidine. (II) The carbon atoms adjacent to the amidine carbon atom are designated in the same manner as those adjacent to a carbonyl group ( 0<, f1', 0 , d ... etc.); thus (III) is named 6?-phenylpropionamidine. c H - CH -CH -C -NH (III) 6 5 2 2 Il 2 NH The nitrogen atoms of the imino and amino groups are not differ- entiated by this system and are referred to as N and N'. If it is difficult to name the compound as a derivative of an acid, the amidine group is referred to as carboxamidine, e.g. (IV) is named stilbene-4,4'-dicarboxamidine. 3. NH ~N-C" .CH =CH (IV) Amidines may be classified into five general types according to the number and distribution of the substituents on the nitrogen atoms. NH I. Unsubstituted R-C~ '~ II. Monosubstituted or III. Symmetrical disubstituted ;NR' NHRt R-e or R-C.,? 'NHR'' ~NR' ~NH IV. Unsymmetrical disubstituted R-C~ 'NR'R'' v. Trisubstituted The preparation of amidines from nitriles and amines Cornell (1) has prepared unsubstituted amidines in low yields by heating the corresponding nitriles with ammonium chloride in liquid ammonia in sealed tubes; he observed that no reaction occurs when only the nitrile and ammonia were used. Bernthsen (2) by a similar procedure prepared many unsubstituted amidines in ver,y low yields. Pinner (3,4) dèscribed the synthesis of unsubstituted amidines from nitriles via the imidic esters; the nitrile was dissolved or suspended in anhydrous alcohol and treated with an excess of dry hydrogen chloride forming an imidic ester hydrochloride (V), which was then caused to react with ammonia 1 as in the following scheme .hNH R-C.:N + R'OH + HCl~R-C~ .HCl (V) OR' ~NH (V) + ~R-C .HCl + R'OH 'NH 2 AYdrogen bromide may be substituted for hydrogen chloride and alcohols other than ethanol may be used (3). The above method is general and mononitriles as well as dinitriles, aliphatic or aromatic, have been used (5). Thus Lamb and White (6) prep ared decanebis-(N-cyclohexylcarbonamidine) (VI) which cr,ystallized from acetone-alcohol mixture in needles, m.p. 122°. (VIa) VI Pinner (.3) and Gautier (7) obtained even formamidine hydro chloride (VII) from cyanogen. ..,..,oR H-C=:N + ROH + HCl- H-C 'NH•HCl 00 ~- -e/ NH H C ,----z H + .3~- 'ibo. .HCl + ROH ~NH.HCl ~NH (VII) Functional groups which do not react with the reagents or the products do not alter the course of the reaction and hydrochloric acid seems to be necessary (8,9). 0 ==C-OC H 0 =C-OC H O=C-OC H 2 5 1 _.,.,_ 1 25 1 2 5 CH -C-NH c~.c= N c~- c=NH 2 1 1 OC H NH 2 5 2 There are limitations as to the type of the unsubstituted amidines which can be prepared by Pinnerts method. Acyl or benzoil cyanides cannot be used, as they give their esters with the evolution of hydrogen cyanide (.3). HCl c H -c -C=N + ROH C6H5-C-OR + HC=N 6 5 Il - M 0 0 Ortho-substituted aromatic nitriles were unreactive with alcohols and hydrogen chloride, whereas their isomers formed imidic esters, converted to amidines; thus p-toluenenitrile (VIII) and 0-naphthlenenitrile (IX) were ......... found reactive, while 0-toluenenitrile (X), ~ -naphthalenenitrile (XI), 2-amino-4 methylbenzonitrile (XII) and 2-nitro-4 methylbenzonitrile (XII) 6. gave negative results. VIII IX : x XI : XII . XIII Steric hindrance plays an important role in these reactions, but the exact limitations are unknown; an example is the formation of o-alkoxybenzamidines (XVI) from o-alkoxybenzonitriles (XIV), (10) XIV xv XV + NH OR 3 C=NH O 1 • HCl ~ XVI The mechanism of this reaction is not known yet; nevertheless, Knorr (16) suggested that the following process involving an ammonium ion may be possible. .. .. ~ ,.NH NH NH '-Il Il R-C-ORt ~R-ë-OR :~ ~RC::.NH + ROH .,. R-J1 l +S @ffi3 :~ Monosubstituted amidines may be prepared from the salts of the al~l and aryl primary amines and nitriles under the influence of heat (11,12), but it has the disadvantage that disubstituted amidines are also formed as by-products. Thus, N-phenyl-phenylacetamidine (XVIII) was obtained by heating aniline hydrochloride with ben~l nitrile (XVII) at 220-240° in sealed tube for one day (13,14). Starting with nitriles, via imidic esters, monosubstituted amidines may be produced by replacing the ammonia with primary amines (3,15). 8. Hill and Rabinowitz (17) prepa.red some amidines of the "Halo caine" type using the same method, (a) by replacing the methyl groups of Holocaine (XIX), which is regarded as an efficient local anaesthetic !or opthalmic purposes, with alkyl or aralkyl groups, and (b) by replacing one phenetidine group by the amino (XX) or dialkylamino groups (XXI) XIX xx XXI An example is the preparation of the Holocaine itself by treating two molecular equivalents of p-phenetidine (XXII) in dry ether with a sus- pension of the imidic ester hydrochloride in the same solvent; the mixture was allowed to stand for 21 days at room temperature and occasionally