Triazabutadienes are an understudied structural motif that have remarkable reactivity once rendered water-soluble. It is shown that these molecules readily release diazonium species in a pH-dependent manner in a series of buffer solutions with pH ranges similar to those found in cells. Upon further development, we expect that this process will be well suited to cargo-release strategies and organelle-specific bioconjugation reactions. These compounds offer one of the mildest ways of generating diazonium species in aqueous solutions.
Keywords: diazonium salts; kinetics; protonation; triazabutadienes.
© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.