Checked by Charles C. Price, Kenneth N. Campbell, and Robert P. Kane.
1. Procedure
A mixture of
98 g. (1 mole) (Note 1) of cyclohexanone and
360 g. (6 moles) of acetic acid contained in a
1-l. three-necked round-bottomed flask equipped with a
reflux condenser, a
slip-sealed stirrer, and a
dropping funnel is heated under reflux and stirred while
108 g. (1 mole) of phenylhydrazine is added during 1 hour. The mixture is heated under reflux for an additional hour and poured into a
1.5-l. beaker and stirred by hand (Note
2) while it solidifies. It is then cooled to about 5° and filtered with suction, the filtrate being cooled in ice and refiltered through the filter cake. The final filtrate is discarded. The filter cake is washed with 100 ml. of water and finally with
100 ml. of 75% ethanol. Each wash is allowed to soak into the filter cake before it is sucked dry. The crude solid is air-dried overnight (Note
3) and crystallized (Note
4) from
700 ml. of methanol after treatment with
decolorizing carbon (Note
5); yield
120–135 g. of
1,2,3,4-tetrahydrocarbazole, m.p.
115–116° (Note
6). The mother liquor is concentrated to one-fourth of its original volume and yields an additional
10 g. of product (total yield
76–85%) (Note
7).
2. Notes
1. Equivalent amounts of
cyclohexanone (after suitable compensation for purity) and
phenylhydrazine are used. The
cyclohexanone was about 90% pure (analyzed by the procedure of Bryant and Smith
2). Instead of analyzing the ketone, it is safe to assume 90% purity.
2. The stirring should be sufficiently vigorous to prevent the formation of lumps.
3. The crude product requires 50–70 hours of air-drying to attain constant weight (
145–155 g.,
85–91%). It is preferable to crystallize the partially dried product.
5. A heated funnel is desirable for filtration of the hot solution, for the product separates on slight cooling.
6. The capillary melting point of
tetrahydrocarbazole ranges from 113° to 114° with slow heating and from 116° to 118° with fast heating.
7.
1,2-Benzo-3,4-dihydrocarbazole may be prepared by the same general procedure. A solution of
172 ml. (2 moles) of concentrated hydrochloric acid (sp. gr. 1.18) in 500 ml. of water is heated at the reflux temperature and stirred in a
2-l. three-necked round-bottomed flask equipped with a reflux condenser, a slip-sealed stirrer, and a dropping funnel while
108 g. (1 mole) of phenylhydrazine is added during 5 minutes.
α-Tetralone (p. 898) (146 g., 1 mole or a correspondingly larger amount of material of 90% purity; see (Note
1)) is added in a period of 1 hour, and the mixture is stirred and heated under reflux for an additional hour. The product is cooled to room temperature with stirring, and the beadlike product is filtered, washed as above, and crystallized from
2.3 l. of methanol after treatment with
decolorizing carbon. The first crop amounts to
105–110 g. and the second crop to
75–80 g., making the total yield
82–87%; m.p.
163–164°.
3. Discussion
Appendix
Compounds Referenced (Chemical Abstracts Registry Number)
1,2-Benzo-3,4-dihydrocarbazole
phenylhydrazone of α-tetralone
ethanol (64-17-5)
hydrochloric acid (7647-01-0)
acetic acid (64-19-7)
methanol (67-56-1)
aniline (62-53-3)
Cyclohexanone (108-94-1)
Phenylhydrazine (100-63-0)
decolorizing carbon (7782-42-5)
carbazole (86-74-8)
α-Tetralone (529-34-0)
2-Chlorocyclohexanone (822-87-7)
1,2,3,4-Tetrahydrocarbazole,
Carbazole, 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro- (942-01-8)
tetrahydrocarbazole
2-phenylcyclohexanone oxime
2-hydroxycyclohexanone
cyclohexanone phenylhydrazone
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