Author(s)

Norio Ota, Tomohiro Nakada, Takumi Shintani, Yasuhiro Kamitori, Etsuji Okada^*

Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan.

Our previous research showed that aliphatic amines were put in order of high reactivity as “ethylamine > ammonia > t-butylamine > diethylamine” on the aromatic nucleophilic substitution of 1-dimetylamino-2,4-bis(trifluoroacetyl)-naphthalene 1 in acetonitrile. The DFT calculation study (B3LYP/6-31G* with solvation model) for the reactions of 1 with above four amines rationally explained the difference of each amines reactivity based on the energies of their Meisenheimer complexes 3 which are assumed to formed as the reaction intermediates in the course of the reaction giving the corresponding N-N exchange products 2. Intramolecular hydrogen bond between amino proton in 1-amino group and carbonyl oxygen in 2-trifluoroacetyl group stabilizes Meisenheimer complexes 3 effectively, and accelerates the substitution reaction from 1 to 2. Our calculation results also predicted that the above order of amines is also true if less polar toluene is used as a solvent instead of acetonitrile even though more enhanced conditions are required.

1-Amino-2, 4-bis(trifluoroacetyl)naphthalenes, Aliphatic Amines, Meisenheimer Complexes, Aromatic Nucleophilic Substitution, DFT Calculation

Ota, N. , Nakada, T. , Shintani, T. , Kamitori, Y. and Okada, E. (2018) Computational Study for the Aromatic Nucleophilic Substitution Reaction on 1-Dimethylamino-2,4-bis(trifluoroacetyl)-naphthalene with Amines. International Journal of Organic Chemistry, 8, 273-281. doi: 10.4236/ijoc.2018.83020.