Comments on the Treatment of Aromaticity and Acid-Base Character of Pyridine and Pyrrole in Contemporary Organic Chemistry Textbooks

Abstract

Presentations of aromaticity and acid-base character of pyridine and pyrrole in 18 contemporary organic chemistry textbooks were surveyed. Superficially, each of these two monoaza aromatic heterocycles retains an electron pair on its sp2-hybridized ring nitrogen, ostensibly available for neutralization with a proton to form a salt. The two nonbonded electrons in pyridine, in an sp2-hybridized orbital outside the ring, are not interacting with the 6π-electron aromatic sextet and thus are fully available for neutralization to form an N+-H pyridinium cation. However, in pyrrole, the nonbonded electron pair on nitrogen is part of the aromatic 6π- electron sextet and is not available for NH salt formation, since this would generate an aliphatic (highly reactive) diene imminium cation, which would destroy pyrrole's aromaticity. However, electrophilic attack of a proton in an irreversible manner attacks C-2 of pyrrole to form a resonance-stabilized cationic intermediate capable of further transformations.