Direct amination of 9-hydroxyphenalenone to produce 9-aminophenalenone and related compounds.

In connection with our studies of organonmetallic complexes of the 1,9-disubstituted-phenalene unit (1) we required access to compounds possessing a total of just two ionizable hydrogen atoms in the A,B groups (1). The prototypical compound in this series, 9-aminophenalenone (2), is not known although 9-hydroxyphenalenone (3) was first prepared in 1941 and a number of derivatives of 1 possessing one or three ionizable hydrogen atoms in the A,B groups have recently become available.