Kinetic study of the oxidation and nitration of catechols in the presence of nitrous acid ionization equilibria.

Conversion of catechols to corresponding nitro derivatives in the presence of nitrous acid dissociation is studied using voltammetry and UV-vis spectrophotometry. The results indicate that the quinones derived from oxidation of catechols by nitrous acid participate in Michael addition reaction with nitrite ion in very mild acidic solutions. Rank annihilation factor analysis RAFA is applied to resolve the two-way kinetic spectra data measured from spectroscopic reactions. The rank of the original data matrix is reduced by one by annihilating the information of each component. It is shown that both reactions are drastically depends on pH and nitrous acid or nitrite ion percentage. The rate constants of oxidation and nitration reactions of catechol derivatives are obtained at the pHs around pK(a) of nitrous acid.