Introduction <P>1
H -Benzotriazole (BtH) is a non-volatile,
white crystalline powder that melts at 98.5 ˚C. It is insoluble
in water, but soluble in aqueous sodium carbonate, and in ethanol. It
is intrinsically unreactive, stable under many conditions, cheap,
and ready available. Because of its chemical properties, it can
be used as a valuable synthetic auxiliary, allowing an enormous
variety of reactions.
[
¹ ]
A
benzotriazole group activates the carbon atom to which it is attached in
various ways: by acting as a leaving group; by enabling deprotonation;
or by acting as an electron donor. An attached benzotriazole group
is also an ambient anion-directing group and it can act as a radical
or carbanion precursor.
[
¹ ]
</P><P>1
H -Benzotriazole is involved in several
reactions, including: Bt-mediated N- and C-acylations;
[
² ]
imidoylation reactions;
[
³ ]
thioacylation and sulfonylations;
[
4 ]
insertion reactions;
[
5 ]
amido- and amino-alkylations;
[
6 ]
synthesis of heterocycles;
[
7 ]
and reactions involving the cleavage
of a benzotriazole ring.
[
8 ]
It can
be also used in Wittig rearrangements, VNS (vicarious nucleophilic
substitutions), and radical-mediated reactions.
[
9 ]
</P><P>BtH can be prepared according to a simple procedure in which,
to a cooled sodium nitrite solution, is added an aqueous
o -phenylenediamine and glacial acetic
acid solution (Figure
[
¹ ]
).
[
¹0 ]
</P>
Figure 1