A Facile Protocol for the Synthesis of Azoarenes from Nitroarenes using ammonium Iodide and Magnesium

A facile, efficient and cost-effective protocol for the synthesis of symmetrically substituted azoarenes from nitroarenes by using readily available ammonium iodide as hydrogen donor and magnesium powder as catalyst at room temperature in methanol media is described. The conversion of using this system is clean, rapid, chemoselective and high yielding. The azoarenes containing some additional substituents such as halogen, methyl, hydroxy, methoxy, ethoxy, etc. functions have been achieved in a single step by use of this reagent.