Aldehydes amidines

Nitriles, which are important intermediates in the manufacture of a wide variety of organic compounds such as amines, aldehydes, amidines, and heterocycles, are manufactured either from alkali cyanides or from carboxamides. The cyanides route is obviously highly toxic, whereas the carboxamide consumes the reagent in stoichiometric quantities. Solid superacids offer a clear alternative to the traditional catalysts. Thus the use of sulfated zirconia enables the dehydration to be accomplished under much milder conditions in the liquid state (Joshi and Rajadhyaksha, 1986 Rajadhyaksha and Joshi, 1991). 

As a class of compounds, nitriles have broad commercial utility that includes their use as solvents, feedstocks, pharmaceuticals, catalysts, and pesticides. The versatile reactivity of organonitnles arises both from the reactivity of the C=N bond, and from the abiHty of the cyano substituent to activate adjacent bonds, especially C—H bonds. Nitriles can be used to prepare amines, amides, amidines, carboxyHc acids and esters, aldehydes, ketones, large-ring cycHc ketones, imines, heterocycles, orthoesters, and other compounds. Some of the more common transformations involve hydrolysis or alcoholysis to produce amides, acids and esters, and hydrogenation to produce amines, which are intermediates for the production of polyurethanes and polyamides. An extensive review on hydrogenation of nitriles has been recendy pubHshed (10). 

Surprisingly, acetylation in hot pyridine yields the pyridinium salt 10. The amino group has amidine character and is resistant to diazotization, and condenses only with reactive aldehydes such as formaldehyde and trichloroacetaldehyde.41... 

As representative examples for the reactivity of the Cp Ti(amidinate) complexes some reactions with CS2 and COS are shown in Scheme 88. Other reagents that have been investigated in this study include carbodiimides, isocyanates, CO2, PhNO as well as aldehydes, ketones, and imines. ... 

N-Trimethylsilylamides or lactams 344 react with sodium trimethylsilanolate 96 to generate the anhydrous N-sodium salts 345 and hexamethyldisiloxane 7 in practically quantitative yield [125]. Likewise, silylated succinimide 201 is converted by sodium trimethylsilanolate 96 into hexamethyldisiloxane 7 and the anhydrous sodium salt 346, which reacts with aldehydes RCHO (R=C2H5, n-C Hy), in the presence of catalytic amounts of 96 to give, via 346, the silylated adducts 347 in 43-62% yield [125]. The imide chloride 348 gives, analogously, sodium chloride and 7 and the N-sodium salt 349, which condenses in situ with unreacted imide chloride 348 to give 91% of the amidine 350 [126] (Scheme 4.46). 

Azines have been prepared by initial condensation of diethoxyphosphinyIhydrazine anions with aldehydes or ketones (Scheme 9). Phosphoryl azides undergo 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to 2-tetralone enamines to give triazolines, possibly en route to amidines. A full paper on the addition of diethyl dibromophosphoramidate to alkenes(leading to the synthesis of 2-bromoalkylamines) has appeared. ... 

Almost accidentally, Bienayme and Bouzid discovered that heterocyclic amidines 9-76 as 2-amino-pyridines and 2-amino-pyrimidines can participate in an acid-catalyzed three-component reachon with aldehydes and isocyanides, providing 3-amino-imidazo[l,2-a]pyridines as well as the corresponding pyrimidines and related compounds 9-78 (Scheme 9.15) [55]. In this reachon, electron-rich or -poor (hetero)aromatic and even sterically hindered aliphatic aldehydes can be used with good results. A reasonable rahonale for the formation of 9-78 involves a non-con-certed [4+1] cycloaddition between the isocyanide and the intermediate iminium ion 9-77, followed by a [1,3] hydride shift. 

Oxidative attack on a carbon-hydrogen bond of an alkyl group a to a nitrogen atom is not restricted to saturated aliphatic amines. In fact X in an X-N-CH- structural subunit can be virtually any common atomic grouping that can be found in stable organic molecules. For example, w-carbon hydrogens of Aralkyl-substituted aromatic cyclic amines (119), aryl amines (120), amides (121), amidines (122), A-nitrosodialkylamines (123), etc. are all subject to oxidative attack, carbinolamine formation, and in most cases release of an aldehyde or ketone depending on the substitution pattern (1° or 2°)... 

Keimg et al. describes the optimization of 2-imino-piperazines using Lewis acids to catalyze the multicomponent a-amino amidine synthesis to make piperazines 39 (Scheme 6) [26]. A, Af -(jimethylethylenediamine 36 was used with an aldehyde 37 and isocyanide 38 in methanol with scandium (III) trifluoromethane sulfonate (Sc(OTf)3) as a catalyst to obtain the piperazine 39 in 57% yield. 

Tertiary benzylic nitriles are useful synthetic intermediates, and have been used for the preparation of amidines, lactones, primary amines, pyridines, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, and esters. The general synthetic pathway to this class of compounds relies on the displacement of an activated benzylic alcohol or benzylic halide with a cyanide source followed by double alkylation under basic conditions. For instance, 2-(2-methoxyphenyl)-2-methylpropionitrile has been prepared by methylation of (2-methoxyphenyl)acetonitrile using sodium amide and iodomethane. In the course of the preparation of a drug candidate, the submitters discovered that the nucleophilic aromatic substitution of aryl fluorides with the anion of a secondary nitrile is an effective method for the preparation of these compounds. The reaction was studied using isobutyronitrile and 2-fluoroanisole. The submitters first showed that KHMDS was the superior base for the process when carried out in either THF or toluene (Table I). For example, they found that the preparation of 2-(2-methoxyphenyl)-2-methylpropionitrile could be accomplished h... 

A -Silylmethyl-amidines and -thioamides (42) (X=NR or S) undergo alkylation at X with, for example methyl triflate, and then fluorodesilylation to give the azomethine ylides 43 (identical with 38 for the thioamides) (25,26). Cycloaddition followed by elimination of an amine or thiol, respectively, again leads to formal nitrile ylide adducts. These species again showed the opposite regioselectivity in reaction with aldehydes to that of true nitrile ylides. The thioamides were generally thought to be better for use in synthesis than the amidines and this route leads to better yields and less substituent dependence than the water-induced desilylation discussed above. 

The most common method for synthesizing the fully aromatized pyrimidine skeleton is the condensation of an amidine-containing substrate with an a,P-unsaturated carbonyl compound. For example, the aza-Wittig reaction of 1 with a variety of aldehydes 2 was reported by Rossi and co-workers to produce pyrimidines 3 <99SL1265>. 

Heteropolyacids Hi4[NaPsW29MoOno] and H3PMO12O4 have been shown to be efficient catalysts for consecutive condensation of aldehydes with 5-aminopyrazole -carboxamide and cyclization into pyrazolo[3,4-t4pyrimidines <2007MI1467>. The reaction of ethyl 5-acylaminopyrazoles with hexachloroethane and triphenylphosphine in the presence of a base has been recently reported to afford an imidoyl chloride that reacted in situ with ethylamine yielding an amidine in 71% yield that cyclized readily in DMF in the presence of potassium carbonate to yield pyrazolopyrimidines in 65% yield <2007TL3983>. 

Synthesis from amidines, isocyanates, aldehydes and ketones 512... 

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