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Azo Coupling Reaction: History
Please note this is an old version of this entry, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Subjects: Chemistry, Organic
Contributor: Helena Kang

Electrophilic attack of an arenediazonium ion on an electron-rich aromatic or heteroaromatic carbon constitutes the azo coupling reaction and creates the N=N (azo) linkage of an aryl–N=N–aryl (or heteroaryl) product. The diazonium electrophile is generated from a primary aromatic amine; the nucleophilic partner is typically a phenol, aniline, pyrrole, or indole. Chemoselective rapid azo-coupling can be restricted to a 5-hydroxyindole or 5-hydroxytryptophan nucleus, showing that the electrophile–nucleophile pairing remains the same when the reaction is used as a conjugation method [1]. In aqueous polymer chemistry, azo coupling between a diazonium-functional chain and an activated aromatic partner induces macromolecular connection through the newly formed azo bond [2]. Regioselective C3-azo coupling of arenediazonium compounds with tryptamines illustrates attack at the most nucleophilic heterocyclic carbon [3]. The transformation is an electrophilic aromatic substitution, not a transition-metal cross-coupling: no oxidative addition of a C–X bond is required, and the N=N unit originates entirely from the diazonium reagent.

  • azo coupling
  • arenediazonium
  • electrophilic aromatic substitution
  • azo compounds

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References

  1. Partha Sarathi Addy; Sarah B. Erickson; James S. Italia; Abhishek Chatterjee; A Chemoselective Rapid Azo-Coupling Reaction (CRACR) for Unclickable Bioconjugation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 11670-11673, 10.1021/jacs.7b05125.
  2. Shang Li; Jilei Wang; Jiajia Shen; Bing Wu; Yaning He; Azo Coupling Reaction Induced Macromolecular Self-Assembly in Aqueous Solution. ACS Macro Lett. 2018, 7, 437-441, 10.1021/acsmacrolett.8b00049.
  3. David E. Stephens; Oleg V. Larionov; Straightforward Access to Hexahydropyrrolo[2,3‐b]indole Core by a Regioselective C3‐Azo Coupling Reaction of Arenediazonium Compounds with Tryptamines. Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2014, 2014, 3662-3670, 10.1002/ejoc.201402088.
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