Abstract
DURING the course of chromatographic studies on 1,4-dimethyl-1,4-diphenyl-2-tetrazene (I), C6H5(CH3)N— N=N—N(CH3)C6H5, a new experimental anti-cancer agent1, there was noticed a blue colour developing on the window side of a column containing solutions of (I). Subsequent investigation revealed that (I) and certain other 2-tetrazenes undergo extensive photochemical decomposition. The crude end-products of the decomposition show no activity in our anti-cancer screening programme2,3. The recent report by Schoental4 that certain carcinogenic N-alkyl-N-nitroso-urethanes are phototransformed to 2-tetrazenes (presumably photostable) enhances the importance of our observations to workers interested in the biological properties of 2-tetrazenes.
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References
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CHILD, R., MORTON, G., PIDACKS, C. et al. Photodecomposition of 1,4-Dialkyl-1,4-diphenyl-2-Tetrazenes. Nature 201, 391 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/201391a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/201391a0
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