ABSTRACT
O), although this does not necessarily means that
N-
oxides have a zwitterionic character.
Indeed, (formal)
N-
oxidation does not affect different classes of nitrogen-containing compounds in the same way, and it is important to distinguish different classes of such compounds. This can be conveniently done by making reference to the hybridization of the nitrogen atom before oxidation, although some confusion in the nomenclature can be found in the literature and leads to the following classification. Amines (nitrogen
sp
-hybridized) form amine
N-
oxides (only in the case of the trialkyl derivatives, see formula
in Equation 99.1).
