Heterocyclic compounds

(3)

By
Dr. Ghassan Qais Ali
There are some important questions that you need to know and answer before
you start studying the reactions of five-membered rings such as:

 Why five-membered heterocycles with one heteroatom undergo electrophilic

substitution reactions instead of electrophilic addition reactions?
 Why are electrophilic substitution on five-membered rings occurring on carbon
atoms rather than on heteroatoms?
 Why Five-membered heterocycles with one heteroatom undergo electrophilic
substitution reactions at C-2 and C-3 ?
 Why pyrrole more reactive than furan and thiophene?
 Why the five-membered heterocycles more reactivity than benzene towards
electrophiles?
 Why the aromaticity of Thiophene greater than furan and thiophene?
Five-membered heterocycles with one heteroatom; pyrrole, furan and thiophene, are
and are characterized by their ability to undergo electrophilic
substitution reactions on the ring carbons rather than to undergo addition reactions.
The electrophilic attack on the heteroatom is rare in the neutral heterocycles due to
the mesomeric electron release from the heteroatom. The heteroatom bears
partial positive charge and hinders the attack of electrophile, while the
negatively charged carbons facilitate the attack of electrophiles to occur at the
ring carbon atoms
 These heterocycles are less reactive towards nucleophiles and are restricted to
undergo deprotonation at the nitrogen or carbon atom. However, the cation
formed by the electrophilic attack on the neutral heterocycle reacts readily with
weak nucleophiles resulting in addition or ring opening reactions.

 Five-membered heterocycles with one heteroatom also undergo electrophilic

substitution reactions at C-2 and C-3 (preferably at C-2) because the transition
states resulting from the attack at these positions (C-2 and C-3) are stabilized.
Since five-membered heterocycles with one heteroatom are with
higher electron density on the carbon atoms and as such their reactivity towards
electrophiles is higher than that of benzene.

 Five-membered aromatic heterocycles with one heteroatom undergo electrophilic

substitutions preferentially at the -position (C-2 and C-5) rather than at the -
position (C-3 and C-4) because of greater resonance stabilization of intermediate.
Reactivity Order in Five-Membered Heterocycles
 The reactivity of five-membered heterocycles towards electrophiles depends (1) on
the electron availability on the ring carbon atoms or (2) mesomerically electron
release from the heteroatom and (3) the greater stabilization of transition state.

 The order of reactivity in five-membered heterocycles is :

pyrrole > furan > thiophene > benzene (for comparison).

 The greater reactivity of pyrrole towards electrophiles is attributed to the greater

electron releasing ability of trivalent nitrogen (when linked by three bonds)
making ring carbon atoms electron rich and to the greater stabilization of transition
states involving positive charge on the tetravalent nitrogen atom
 Furan is also reactive (although less than pyrrole) towards electrophiles (preferably at C-2) and the
reason is the same as for pyrrole. Since oxygen is more electronegative than nitrogen and withdraws
electrons from the ring carbon atoms, the positive charge is less readily accommodated by oxygen
atom than by nitrogen atom. The transition state with oxygen atom positively charged resulting from
the electrophilic attack on furan is, therefore, less stable than that of pyrrole. Thus, furan is less
reactive towards electrophiles than pyrrole as phenol is less reactive than aniline.

 Thiophene is less reactive than even furan towards electrophiles. The sulfur atom is less
electronegative than the oxygen atom and therefore withdraws electrons less readily from the ring
carbon atoms. Moreover, +M effect of sulfur (mesomeric electron release from sulfur) is smaller than
that of oxygen because of not effective overlapping of differently sized p-orbitals of carbon and
sulfur than in carbon and oxygen. The relative reactivity of thiophene and furan can be shown by the
following reaction in which nitration with mild nitrating agent occurs only in furan nucleus at C-2
Reactivity Comparison with Benzene
The electrophilic substitution in thiophene is much easier than in benzene. Thiophene
is brominated 109 times more rapidly than benzene which, in tum, is 103-107 times
more reactive than pyridine. Thus, benzene is much less reactive than the five-
membered heterocycles towards electrophiles. The reactivity depends on:

(i) The stabilization energy and

(ii) The stability of transition state.

The lower reactivity of benzene towards electrophiles is attributed partly to the

greater resonance stabilization energy of benzene. The higher energy of the transition
state of benzene than the structurally related transition states of five-membered
heterocycles is also responsible for the lower reactivity of benzene . The stability
order of the transition states has been observed to be as follows
Effect of Aromaticity on Reactivity

Electrophilic addition in acyclic system

Electrophilic substitution in heterocyclic system

 Thus, in both the systems; acyclic and heterocyclic, the first step is the same and
involves an electrophilic attack, but in the second step acyclic conjugated system
instead of losing a proton is attacked by a nucleophile at the positively charged
carbon atom providing addition product.

summary
. Pyrrole, furan, and thiophene undergo electrophilic substitution, preferentially at C-2:
(Reactivity)

• The aromaticity order in these heterocycles depends on the electronegativity of

the heteroatom : 0 > N > S and, therefore, the aromaticity follows the order as :
Thiophene > Pyrrole > Furan.
And the extra stabilization of thiophene is attributed to the expansion of valence
shell of sulfur by using d-orbitals in hybridization.
Resonance Stabilization:

Resonating structures of five-membered heterocycles with one heteroatom

Additional resonating structures of thiophene

 The lone pair associated with the heteroatom is involved in the aromatic sextet and is delocalized over
the ring carbons. The stabilization energies of these heterocycles (87.69 kJ/mol for pyrrole, 66.81
kJ/mol for furan and 121.10 kJ/mol for thiophene) are approximately half of the value of benzene
because only one uncharged resonating structure contributing to the resonance hybrid is possible in
these heterocycles as compared to two uncharged resonating structures for benzene. The extra
stabilization of thiophene is attributed to the expansion of valence shell of sulfur by using d-orbitals
in hybridization.

General mechanism of electrophilic substitution in the five-membered heterocycles

Effect of electron-releasing substituents at C-2
 The effect of electron-releasing substituents at C-2 position is similar to that of
ortho-para directing substituents in benzene and tend to direct incoming electrophile
to C-5 position.

1) In the presence of weakly electron-releasing substituents(-Cl, -CH3) at C-2

position tend to direct incoming electrophile to C-5 position.

2) But with strongly activating substituents (-OCH3, -NHCOCH3) the substitution

may occur at C-3 due to the ortho-effect of electron-releasing substituents
Effect of electron-withdrawing substituents at C-2
The effect of electron-withdrawing substituents is similar to the meta-directing effect in benzene.
1) The presence of electron-withdrawing substituent at C-2 causes substitution at C-4 due to directing
influence of the substituent.
2) But the directing effect of substituent competes with the -directing effect of heteroatom which
causes substitution to occur at C-5. The formation of 2,5-disubstituted furan is rationalized by the
most powerful -directing effect of oxygen in furan than that of sulfur and nitrogen in thiophene, and
pyrrole respectively.
Effect of electron-releasing substituents at C-3
 The presence of electron-releasing substituents at C-3 will reinforce the -directing effect of ring
heteroatom with the substitution at C-2

 If the electron-releasing substituent is alkyl, the reactivity of -positions (C-2 and C-5) does not differ
appreciably and in case of the sterically hindered alkyl group or incoming electrophile, the
substitution atC-2 is restricted and occurs at C-5
Effect of electron-withdrawing substituents at C-3
 The effect of electron-withdrawing substituent at C-3 is similar to the meta directing effect in
benzene and is reinforced by the a-directing effect of ring heteroatom. Thus, the combined effect
of both the effects; meta-directing effect of the substituent and directing effect of the
heteroatom, causes substitution to occur at C-5 most favourably
Effect of electron-releasing substituents at C-2
Weakly electron-releasing substituents (-Cl, -CH3) at C-2 position C-5 position

Strongly activating substituents (-OCH3, -NHCOCH3) at C-2 position C-3 position

Effect of electron-releasing substituents at C-3

The presence of electron-releasing substituents at C-3 position C-2 position

Sterically hindered alkyl group at C-3 position or incoming electrophile C-5 position

Effect of electron-releasing substituents at C-2

The presence of electron-withdrawing substituent at C-2 position C-4 and C-5 position

The directing effect of substituent at C-2 competes with the directing effect of furan C-5
position
Effect of electron-releasing substituents at C-3
The effect of electron-withdrawing substituent at C-3 position C-5 position
Reactions of Five-Membered Heterocycles :
Reactions of Pyrroles:

Orientation
(i) The substituents attached to the nitrogen atom of pyrrole (position-1) do not have an appreciable
effect unless they are bulky or strongly electron releasing or electron-withdrawing substituents. The
presence of bulky group exerts steric hindrance and directs electrophilic attack at the position-3. The
proportion of 3-substitution increases with increasing steric effect of the substituent at the position-1.
(ii) Electron-releasing substituents at carbon-2 of the pyrrole ring facilitate electrophilic substitution at
the position-5 (C-5), while the presence of substituent at carbon-3 causes substitution at the position-2
(C-2).
(iii) Electron-withdrawing substituents at carbon-2 result in electrophilic substitution at both carbon-4
and carbon-5, but the ratio depends upon the -M effect of the substituent as the proportion of 4-isomer
increases with effect. The presence of electron-withdrawing substituent at carbon-3 facilitates the attack
of electrophile at carbon-5.
1- Nitration:
2- Sulfonation :
Pyrrole and its N- and C-alkylpyrroles cannot be sulfonated under ordinary conditions as these are
polymerized by concentrated sulfuric acid. These are, therefore, sulfonated by mild sulfonating agent
(pyridine-sulfur trioxide) of low acidity. The reaction of pyrrole with pyridine-sulfur trioxide complex at
100°C, a 90% yield of the corresponding pyrrole-2-sulfonic acid is obtained, after acidification.

Pyrroles substituted with electron- withdrawing substituents require vigorous reaction conditions (
chlorosulfonic acid, cone. sulfuric acid and oleum). If both the a-positions are blocked, the sulfonation
occurs at the
3- Halogenation :
The high reactivity of pyrrole ring system causes it to undergo halogenation at all the
strongly activating positions. The special reagents with mild conditions are, therefore,
required for the halogenation of pyrroles.

sulfuryl chloride

Note:
 Bromination of pyrrole with bromine in acetic acid gives 2,3,4,5-tetrabromopyrrole

 pyrrole substituted with electron-withdrawing substituent undergoes bromination providing

monobrominated pyrroles

 with bromine in carbon tetrachloride, 3-bromopyrrole is obtained by the isomerization of

thermodynamically less stable 2-bromopyrrole
 Iodination of pyrrole with iodine in aqueous potassium iodide provides tetraiodopyrrole.

 Iodination of pyrrole substituted with electron-withdrawing substituent at the position-2 results in

substitution at the position- 4.
4- Friedel-Crafts Acylation:
Typical electrophilic reactions, such as nitration, halogenation with a Lewis acid (as a ‘carrier’),
Friedel-Crafts C-alkylation and -acylation, that work well with benzene, cannot be applied to
pyrrole, because heating with strong acids, or a Lewis acid, destroys the heterocycle. However,
milder conditions can sometimes be used.

or pyrrole with acetic anhydride in the presence of sodium acetate provides N-acylpyrrole
 N-Acylpyrroles can be obtained by the reaction of alkali metal salt of pyrroles with
an acyl halide

5- Vilsmeier reaction :
The Vilsmeier reaction (reagents: POCl3, and N, N-dimethylformamide) gives 2-
formylpyrrole
6- Friedel-Crafts Alkylation:
Because of high reactivity of the pyrrole ring, Friedel-Crafts alkylation of pyrrole with alkyl halides and
highly reactive allyl- and benzyl halides results in polyalkylation under milder conditions. Therefore, it
is not possible to obtain monoalkylated product.
 The reactivity of pyrroles substituted with electron-withdrawing substituents towards Friedel-
Crafts alkylation is decreased because of co-ordination of substituent with Friedel-Crafts
catalyst. The reaction of ethyl pyrrole-2-carboxylate with alkene in the presence of Lewis acid
results in the formation of 4-isopropyl- and 4,5-diisopropyl- derivatives

 Friedel-Crafts alkylation of pyrrole Grignard reagent produces 2-alkylpyrrole via 1-alkylpyrrole

involving Hofmann-Martius type rearrangement
7) Hydroxymethylation (Mannich Reaction)
Pyrrole undergoes Mannich reaction with formaldehyde and primary or secondary amine in the presence
of an acid with the introduction of functionalized alkyl group at the -position. However, if both the a-
positions are substituted, the substitution then occurs at a free -position. The reaction is
considered to involve electrophilic attack of iminium electrophile which is produced in situ from the
reaction of formaldehyde with amine in the presence of an acid. The product of Mannich reaction
(Mannich base) is synthetically useful as it undergoes a number of transformations providing important
compounds.
Mechanism

R = CH3
8) Diazo Coupling
Pyrrole undergoes diazo coupling reactions very readily with benzenediazonium salts providing 2-
aza- or 2,5-bis(aza)- pyrroles depending on the reaction conditions. The rate of the reaction is faster
in an alkaline media as it involves pyrrolyl anion and results in the formation of 2,5-bis(aza)-
pyrrole

 If both the -positions are occupied, diazo coupling occurs at the B-position
Reactivity and Orientation Effects
Furan is heterocycle and exhibits greater reactivity towards electrophilic substitutions. As far
as the comparison of reactivity is concerned, furan lies between pyrrole and thiophene i.e. less reactive
than pyrrole, but more reactive than thiophene. The lower reactivity of furan than pyrrole is because
the oxygen atom accommodates positive charge less readily than the nitrogen atom, while the higher
reactivity of furan than thiophene can be attributed to the smaller orientation effect (+M effect) of
sulfur than that of oxygen.
1) Nitration
Furan is nitrated with mild nitrating agent, acetyl nitrate, at low temperature. The reaction proceeds by
an addition-elimination mechanism involving an intermediate, 2,5-addition product. In certain cases,
the intermediate 2,5- addition product , may be isolated, if a base (pyridine) is not used to eliminate
acetic acid.
Mechanism
Ex:

Note:
Electrophilic substitutions in 2,5-disubstituted heterocycles normally occur at the 3-position .
However, in some cases, specially with furan, electrophilic substitution occurs with the
displacement of a-substituent (carboxyl, acyl or halogen)

or
-COOR ,
-Cl , -Br
2) Sulfonation
Furan and its simple alkyl - derivatives are decomposed by the usual strong acid
reagents, but the pyridine – sulfur - trioxide complex or dioxane can be used,
and provides 2-sulfonic or 2,5-disulfonic acid depending on the reaction
conditions, disubstitution of furan occurring even at room temperature.
However, furan substituted with an electron-withdrawing substituent at the
position-2 can be sulfonated by oleum with the formation of 5-sulfonic acid
derivative.
3) Halogenation
Furan reacts vigorously with chlorine and bromine at room temperature to give
polyhalogenated products, but does not react at all with iodine. Controlled
conditions, the milder conditions are required for the formation of monobromo-
and monochloro-furans. Bromination of furan by bromine in dimethylformamide
at room temperature – smoothly produce 2 - bromo - or 2,5 - dibromo - furans.
dioxane-dibromide (Br2 + dioxane) at -5°C gives 2-bromofuran

Mechanism:
 ‫في هذا المثال تكون عملية الهلجنة للفيوران بشكل غير مباشر‬

Note:
Bromination of furan substituted with an electron-withdrawing substituent at the
position-2 generally provides 5-bromo derivative involving an electrophilic
substitution mechanism.
4) Friedel-Crafts Acylation
The acylation of furan with acid anhydrides in the presence of mild catalysts such
as phosphoric acid or boron trifluoride etherate results in exclusively 2-acylfuran.
The acylation of furans can be performed also with acetyl p-toluene sulfonate or Ac
20-SnC14, although trifluoroacetic anhydride does not require any catalyst.
5) Vilsmeier reaction :

DMF = N, N-dimethylformamide

6) Friedel-Crafts Alkylation
Furan does not undergo Friedel-Crafts alkylation. The catalysts required in
Friedel-Crafts alkylation affect polymerization because of the acid sensitivity of
furan. The alkylation is affected by alkenes at the position-2 in the presence of
mild catalysts (phosphoric acid or boron trifluoride)
 3-alkylated (tert-butylation) furans

Note:
furans substituted with electron-withdrawing substituents at the position-2 undergo
Friedel-Crafts alkylation at room temperature providing a mixture of alkylfurans
7) Reactions with Diazonium Salts
Furan undergoes phenylation rather than diazo coupling on reaction with
benzenediazonium salts.
1) Nitration:
Thiophene undergoes nitration predominantly at an -position with the formation
of 2-nitrothiophene, when treated with mild nitrating agent, acetyl nitrate [mixture
of fuming nitric acid and acetic anhydride], at 10°C. Although small amount of 3-
nitrothiophene is also obtained, the selectivity in nitration decreases with the
strong nitrating agents. ‫يدخل مركب الثايوفين تفاعل النيترة بسهولة‬
 The nitration of thiophenes substituted with electron-releasing substituents (with +I effect) at C-2
provides 3-nitro- and 5-nitrothiophenes. But when the substituent is with considerable steric
hindrance, the nitration occurs exclusively at C-5

 Thiophenes with electron-withdrawing substituents at C-2 undergo nitration at the C-4 and C-5
positions providing 4-nitro- and 5-nitro derivatives
 Thiophenes substituted with electron-releasing substituents ( +M effect) involve nitration at the a- and
13-positions , but in halothiophenes nitration takes place exclusively at C-5
2) Sulfonation:
Thiophene is sulfonated readily with 95% sulfuric acid at room temperature with
the formation of thiophene-2-sulfonic acid (70%), and higher yield (90%) is
obtained by the sulfonation with pyridine-sulfur trioxide complex. But the
sulfonation of 2-halothiophenes with 95% sulfuric acid occurs exclusively at an
-position (C-5)
 The reaction of thiophene with chlorosulfonic acid affords thiophene-2-sulfonyl chloride 467 in
low yield

‫يمكن ان يدخل مركب الثايوفين تفاعل السلفنة من خلط الثايوفين مع حامض الكبريتيك المركز البارد‬
3) Halogenation:
Halogenation of thiophene occurs very readily at room temperature and is rapid even at − 30 ° C in the dark;
tetrasubstitution occurs easily. 19 The rate of halogenation of thiophene at 25 ° C is about 10 8 times that of
benzene. 20 2 - Bromo - , 2 - chloro - 21 and 2 - iodothiophenes 22 and 2,5 - dibromo - and 2,5 -
dichlorothiophenes 23 can be produced cleanly under various controlled conditions. Controlled bromination
of 3 - bromothiophene produces 2,3 - dibromothiophene.
‫يعاني الثايوفين عملية هلجنة متعددة احادي وثنائي وثالثي ورباعي مع الكلور او البروم‬
Note:
If both positions adjacent to the heteroatom are occupied, electrophilic substitution
occurs at C-3:
 4) Friedel-Crafts Acylation:
Thiophene is polymerized when treated with acetyl chloride in the presence of
aluminium chloride, but undergoes acylation exclusively at an a-position ( = 200 :
1) when acylated by acid anhydrides in the presence of phosphoric acid or by acid
chlorides in the presence of stannic chloride. The reactivity of position in thiophene
is much higher than that of the position towards acylations and therefore leads to the
substitution selectively.

‫ كعامل مساعد في عملية االسيلة للثايوفين الغير معوض النه يعطي بوليمر لذلك يستعاض عنه بعامل مساعد اخر مثل‬AlCl3 ‫هنا اليستخدم‬
ZnCL2, SnCl4, BF3
 the acylation of 2-acylthiophenes in the presence of Lewis acid occurs at the position-4 probably
because of co-ordination of Lewis acid with oxygen of an acyl group

 Thiophenes substituted with electron-releasing substituents such as methyl-, tert-butyl- or thiomethyl-

at the position-2 undergo acylation exclusively at the position-5 ( substitution)
5- Vilsmeier reaction :
6) Friedel-Crafts Alkylation:
Alkylation of thiophene under Friedel-Crafts conditions results in polyalkylation and polymerization
probably because of the successive protonation and electrophilic substitutions. However, alkylation
of thiophene with alkenes in the presence of phosphoric acid or boron trifluoride gives a mixture of
. The poor a-selectivity is due to the indiscriminate attack of highly reactive
carbonium ion at the during alkylation. The selectivity is not effected in the
alkylation of thiophenes if substituted with either methyl-, tert-butyl-, or thiomethyl- at the position-
2. But electron-withdrawing substituents at the position-2 have considerable effect and favour
alkylation predominantly at the position-4 because of the swamping catalyst effect
7) Reactions with Diazonium Salts
Thiophene is not sufficiently reactive to diazo coupling and undergoes arylation rather
than coupling reaction when treated with diazonium salts under alkaline conditions and
produces 2-aryl- or 2,5-diarylthiophene probably by the mechanism depicted in.
However, 2-methyl-, 2-tert-butyl-, 2-phenyl- and 2,4-dimethyl-thiophenes with
diazonium salts under acidic conditions result in the formation of coupled products
involving normal coupling at the position-2