Synthesis of photochromic 5,6-diaryl-2-chloropyridine-3,4-dicarbonitriles from 3,4-diaryl-4-oxobutane-1,1,2,2-tetracarbonitriles

We now propose a new synthetic approach to photochromic diarylethenes, which is based on the reaction of tetracyanoethylene with ketones as key intermediate step. Tetracyanoethylation of ketones has been well documented; however, there are almost no published data on reactions of aryl arylmethyl ketones with tetracyanoethylene. Adducts of tetracyanoethylene with ketones of the general formula R(CO)CH2R′ were used as starting compounds to obtain heterocycles containing an RC=CR′ fragment [4–10]. Analogous reactions with aryl arylmethyl ketones Ar(CO)CH2Ar could give rise to various 1,2-diarylethenes as new potential photochromes. We were the first to react tetracyanoethylene with 1,2-diarylethanones Ia and Ib in the presence of a catalytic amount of hydrochloric acid. As a result, we isolated 3,4-diaryl-4-oxobutane-1,1,2,2-tetracarbonitriles IIa and IIb. The substrates were deoxybenzoin (Ia), the parent compound of the 1,2-diarylethanone series, and 1,2-bis(2,5-dimethylthiophen-3-yl)ethanone (Ib). The latter was selected taking into account that diarylethenes containing thienyl substituents are most promising from the viewpoint of the design of practically useful photochromic devices [1]. Ketone Ib was synthesized in a number of steps starting from hexane2,5-dione [11].