Amidation using aliphatic nitro compounds

The spectrum of applications of potassium permanganate is very broad. This reagent is used for dehydrogenative coupling [570], hydrox-ylates tertiary carbons to form hydroxy compounds [550,831], hydroxylates double bonds to form vicinal diols [707, 296, 555, 577], oxidizes alkenes to a-diketones [560, 567], cleaves double bonds to form carbonyl compounds [840, 842, 552] or carboxylic acids [765, 841, 843, 845, 852, 869, 872, 873, 874], and converts acetylenes into dicarbonyl compounds [848, 856, 864] or carboxylic acids [843, 864], Aromatic rings are degraded to carboxylic acids [575, 576], and side chains in aromatic compounds are oxidized to ketones [566, 577] or carboxylic acids [503, 878, 879, 880, 881, 882, 555]. Primary alcohols [884] and aldehydes [749, 868, 555] are converted into carboxylic acids, secondary alcohols into ketones [749, 839, 844, 863, 865, 886, 887], ketones into keto acids [555, 559, 590] or acids [559, 597], ethers into esters [555], and amines into amides [854, 555] or imines [557], Aromatic amines are oxidized to nitro compounds [755, 559, 592], aliphatic nitro compounds to ketones [562, 567], sulfides to sulfones [846], selenides to selenones [525], and iodo compounds to iodoso compounds [595]. 

The alkylation and reduction of aliphatic nitro compounds is one route to t-AlkNH2 and is discussed in Chapter 22. Another route uses the Ritter reaction followed by hydrolysis of the amide. 

Metal Hydrides. Metal hydrides can sometimes be used to prepare amines by reduction of various functional groups, but they are seldom the preferred method. Most metal hydrides do not reduce nitro compounds at all (64), although aliphatic nitro compounds can be reduced to amines with lithium aluminum hydride. When aromatic amines are reduced with this reagent, a2o compounds are produced. Nitriles, on the other hand, can be reduced to amines with lithium aluminum hydride or sodium borohydride under certain conditions. Other functional groups which can be reduced to amines using metal hydrides include amides, oximes, isocyanates, isothiocyanates, and a2ides (64). 

The synthesis of N,N -disubstituted ureas has been achieved from arpmatic and also aliphatic nitro compounds using bromomagnesiurn alkyl and aryl-amides and FeCCOgCSPjs... 

The reductive cyclization of 2-nitrobenzyl-A, A -bis(formamide) with zinc in acetic acid to quinazoline was first described by RiedelT ° The reaction is used successfully for the synthesis of larger quantities of quinazoline and its benzene-ring-substituted derivatives 12 from 2-ni-trobenzyl-A, A -bis(formamides) 11. The method is suitable only for the preparation of 4-un-substituted quinazolines, because 2-nitro-substituted phenones do not condense with aliphatic amides to yield bis(amide) derivatives. Zinc in acetic acid is the reducing agent of choice, but iron in hydrochloric acid or Raney nickel can also be used. " Applications of compounds other than bis(formamides) [e.g., bis(acetamides) ] and preparation of 2-substituted quinazolines by Riedel s synthesis are scarce. 

Alane (AIH3) and its derivatives have also been utilized in the reduction of carboxylic acids to primary alcohols. It rapidly reduces aldehydes, ketones, acid chlorides, lactones, esters, carboxylic acids and salts, tertiary amides, nitriles and epoxides. In contrast, nitro compounds and alkenes are slow to react. AIH3 is particularly useful for the chemoselective reduction of carboxylic acids containing halogen or nitro substituents, to produce the corresponding primary alcohols. DIBAL-H reduces aliphatic or aromatic carboxylic acids to produce either aldehydes (-75 °C) or primary alcohols (25 C) Aminoalu-minum hydrides are less reactive reagents and are superior for aldehyde synthesis. ... 

In planning the synthesis of this compound we try to determine the identity of the immediate precursor of the desired product. We know that two principal pathways are used in the synthesis of amines the reduction of amides and the reduction of nitro compounds. We can plan accordingly. Because 1-hexanamine is an aliphatic amine, the immediate precursor must be hexanamide. 

There have been several reports of the use of intramolecular displacements of nitro groups in the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds. Thus, reaction16 of the intermediate (2) with a strong base in DMF results in the substitution of a nitro group by the amide function to yield a dibenzothiazepinone derivative (3). Nucleophilic addition across the double bond of 2,4,6-trinitrostyrene may occur with thiophenol, aniline, and aliphatic amines. The adducts so formed with primary amines may undergo intramolecular substitution of an o-nitro group to give IV-substituted 4,6-dinitroindoles.17... 

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