Question

What are the uses of Aryl diazonium salts?

Answer 1

Hint: As the name suggests, aryl refers to an aromatic closed ring structure. The word diazonium is made up of 3 separate words, di, azo, and ium which stand for two, nitrogen and cationic nature respectively. Hence, it is an aromatic ring having two nitrogen atoms with one of the nitrogen atoms being cationic in nature.

Complete Step by Step Solution:
Aryl diazonium has a wide range of industrial as well as laboratory applications. Some of its uses are mentioned below:
1) Aryl diazonium salts find a variety of applications in the dye and pigment industries. They are widely used to produce dyed (colored) cloth materials.
2)They are useful in the production of a large variety of organic compounds, especially aryl derivatives.
3) Due to their unique property of breaking down when they are exposed to ultraviolet light, they are used in the process of document re-production. For this purpose, the paper of film used is painted using aryl diazonium dye-based paint.
4) They are used as an intermediate in an additional step to introduce –F, –Br, –Cl, –I, –NO2, –OH, and –CN groups into the benzene ring.
5) It is impossible to prepare a substituted aromatic compound by direct substitution reaction in benzene. For such compounds, we replace the diazo group in diazonium salts.
6) These salts can be used to produce cyanobenzene as the normal nucleophilic substitution of chlorine in chlorobenzene by the action of a cyano group is not possible.

Note: Aryl diazonium salts are formed by the addition of sodium nitrite with an alkyl primary amine compound. Sandmeyer’s reaction, one of the well-known name reactions, involves these salts as their reactants.