Radical anions of nitrobenzothiazoles: EPR study of conjugative properties of benzothiazolyl systems

The electrochemical reduction in DMSO of the five isomers of nitrobenzothiazole (NBTZ) gave quite persistent radical anions that could be easily characterised by EPR spectroscopy. By contrast, the chemical reduction in alkaline solution, that is by t-BuOK in DMSO or by glucose and MeOK in MeOH, presented some problems with 6- and 4-NBTZ, and in the case of 2-NBTZ did not provide any detectable paramagnetic species. The internal consistency of coupling constants of the nitrobenzothiazole radical anions is in good agreement with the conjugative properties of the various benzothiazolyl systems and allows rectifying a recent EPR characterisation of 6-NBTZ radical anion.