Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 1981, 46, 906-916
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc19810906

Electrooxidation of 2-arylfurans

Miroslav Janda, Jan Šrogl, Hana Dvořáková, Dalimil Dvořák and Ivan Stibor

Department of Organic Chemistry, Prague Institute of Chemical Technology, 166 28 Prague 6

Abstract

Electrochemical methoxylation of 2-phenylfuran (I) and 2-(4-nitrophenyl)furan (VI) proceeded anomalously, affording 5-methoxy-2-phenylfuran (XI) and 5-methoxy-2-(4-nitrophenyl)furan (XIII), respectively. 2-Phenyl-5-methylfuran (II) and methyl-2-(2-methylphenyl)-3-furoate (VIII) behaved normally giving the respective 2,5-dimethoxy-2,5-dihydrofuran derivatives XII and XIV. The suggested ECNECB mechanism of the anomalous methoxylation was confirmed by methoxylation of compound II, in which the methyl group hinders the last CB step, and also of compound VIII in which the automaticity is suppressed by forced deviation from planarity. Forced deviation from planarity was moreover studied also on 2-(4-methylphenyl)furan (III), 5-methyl-2-(2-methylphenyl)furan (IV) and 3,5-dimethyl-2-(2-methylphenyl)furan (V) as model compounds. For all the derivatives the INDO charges were calculated and correlated with the 1H- and 13C-NMR spectra. The experimental electronic spectra were correlated with the theoretical ones (INDO-S-CI). All the results obtained confirm the suggested mechanism.