First transamination reactions for the one-pot synthesis of substituted zwitterionic quinones.

A new and very efficient one-pot synthesis, in water, of 6 pi + 6 pi electron zwitterionic benzoquinonemonoimines involves the first examples of transamination reactions in quinonoid chemistry and allows the introduction of functionalities to, and the fine-tuning of the properties of, a large family of molecules with interesting potential, both in supramolecular chemistry and as multidentate ligands in coordination chemistry.