REDOX PROCESSES IN THE REACTIONS OF N-ARYLSULFONYL-1,4-NAPHTНOQUINONЕIMINES WITH CERTAIN NUCLEOPHILES

Abstract

Quinone-hydroquinone pairs are prototypes of organic redox systems, and studies of the electrochemical behavior of these compounds are of great interest for research. Electrochemical behavior associated with the equilibrium of electron-proton transfer provides information about the molecular structure and environment of the process. Apart from chemical aspects, quinones play an important role in the biochemistry of living cells. Quinone derivatives, used as drugs for several types of human cancers, have been found to have their biological activity related to their redox behavior. Quinoneimines-aminophenols form similar pairs. In nucleophilic addition reactions of N‑substituted p-quinoneimines, parallel redox processes are often observed, and the higher the redox potential of quinoneimine, the greater the likelihood of such processes. Naphthoquinoneimines with aromatic amines and acylhydrazines follow the scheme of 1,4-addition, but as reaction products are oxidized products -4-arylsulfonylamido‑2-arylamino(2-aroylamino)-1,4-naphthoquinoneimines. The oxidant may be the original naphthoquinoneimine and oxygen. Studies have shown that oxygen in the reaction of 1,4-naphthoquinoneimines with acylhydrazines is the only oxidant that oxidizes the product of 1,4-addition, as evidenced by the study of redox potentials. Both oxidized and reduced form of the compounds, as naphthoquinoneimine and the corresponding aminonaphthol, are used to determine the redox potential by direct potentiometry. Due to the instability of the reduced form in the case of the pair naphthoquinoneimine-aminonaphthol, we used only the reduced form, which is oxidized in the cell by oxygen. The redox potential of the naphthoquinoneimine-aminonaphthol galvanic pair was determined as the average value between the potential Emax, which was established in the system upon complete oxidation of the starting substance, that is, when only naphthoquinone imine remains in the system, and the potential Emin, which was registered at the beginning of the process in the system with the reduced form – the corresponding aminonaphthol. This is the method of direct potentiometry in the variant of the middle potential.