Triazene derivatives of hexahydropyrimidines from the reaction of diazonium salts with mixtures of formaldehyde and 1,3-diaminopentane

A new series of bistriazenes has been synthesized from a general reaction of diazonium salts with a mixture of 1,3-diaminopentane (DYTEK® EP diamine) and formaldehyde, which affords the 4-ethyl-3-({6-ethyl-3-[2-aryl-1-diazenyl]hexahydro-1-pyrimidinyl} methyl)-1-[2-aryl-1-diazenyl]hexahydropyrimidines (1). Each of the molecules of type 1 is built up of two equivalent 3-(aryldiazenyl)-6-ethylhexahydro-1-pyrimidinyl groups attached to a central methylene group. The importance of this study is in part due to the fact that the formaldehyde-1,3-diaminopentane system has not previously been investigated. All new compounds have been characterized by IR and NMR spectroscopy, with elemental analysis for selected compounds; one example from the series has been unequivocally characterized by X-ray crystallography. Although analysis of the NMR spectra is made somewhat difficult because of broadness and coalescence of signals due to the rotational dynamics of the N--N single bonds, it is possible to fully assign the proton spectra of all compounds and to detect 94% of all carbon signals. The fine structure within the proton spectra illustrate the diastereotopic nature of the methylene group protons because of the presence of a stereocenter in each hexahydropyrimidine ring. The general conclusion of this study is that alkanediamines with three carbon atoms in the spacer link between the nitrogen atoms give rise to the linear bicyclic molecules of type 1, 2, and 3, in contrast to the case of ethylenediamine (spacer link has two carbon atoms), which affords molecules of type 7 that exemplify the bridged bicyclic bistriazene structure. The new compounds of series 1 represent an extension of a broad ranging study of the synthesis of new bistriazene derivatives of (1,x)-diazacycloalkanes.