Ammonium chloride nitro compound reduction

INDIUM/AMMONIUM CHLORIDE-MEDIATED SELECTIVE REDUCTION OF AROMATIC NITRO COMPOUNDS ETHYL 4-... 

Dissolve 0-5 g. of the substance in 10 ml. of 50 per cent, alcohol, add 0-5 g. of solid ammonium chloride and about 0 -5 g. of zinc powder. Heat the mixture to boiling, and allow the ensuing chemical reaction to proceed for 5 minutes. Filter from the excess of zinc powder, and teat the filtrate with Tollen s reagent Section 111,70, (i). An immediate black or grey precipitate or a silver mirror indicates the presence of a hydroxyl-amine formed by reduction of the nitro compound. Alternatively, the filtrate may be warmed with Fehling s solution, when cuprous oxide will be precipitated if a hydroxylamine is present. Make certain that the original compound does not aflfect the reagent used. 

Nitro compounds and their reduction products. Tertiary nitro compounds (these are generally aromatic) are reduced by zinc and ammonium chloride solution to the corresponding hydroxylamines, which may be detected by their reducing action upon an ammoniacal solution of silver nitrate or Tollen s reagent ... 

Reduction of the nitro group in 70 with zinc in hot sodium hydroxide results in formation of pyrrolo[2,l-(f][l,2,5]benzotriazepine 71 by intramolecular coupling of the amino group with the newly formed nitroso group (Scheme 16). If the reduction is carried out under the less rigorous conditions of zinc in aqueous ammonium chloride the intermediate hydroxy compound is formed <96T10751>. 

Reductions with zinc are carried out in aqueous [160 as well as anhydrous solvents [163 and at different pHs of the medium. The choice of the reaction conditions is very important since entirely different results may be obtained under different conditions. While reduction of aromatic nitro groups in alkali hydroxides or aqueous ammonia gives hydrazo compounds, reduction in aqueous ammonium chloride gives hydroxylamines, and reduction in acidic medium amines (p. 73). Of organic solvents the most efficient seem to be dimethyl formamide [164 and acetic anhydride [755]. However, alcohols have... 

Zinc in the presence of ammonium chloride reduces primary, secondary and tertiary aliphatic nitro compounds but yields of hydroxylamines are moderate and formation of coupling products is common. Zinc with or without ammonium chloride reduces aromatic nitro compounds (e.g. 75, equation 49) into hydroxylamines in moderate to good yield. However, it has been mentioned that the reaction is sensitive to the grade and quality of zinc dust (equation 50) and aromatic amines have been obtained as major products in zinc reduction reactions. ... 

Furthermore, aromatic nitro compounds may be reduced to hydroxylamines by tita-nium(in) chloride or ammonium sulfide ", as well as by electrochemical reduction . 

The requisite hydroxylamine function for such cyclizations can also be generated from a precursor having a nitro group. This novel route has provided access to hitherto unknown l-hydroxy-6-allyl-, and -6,6-bisallyl-piperazine-2,5-diones (91UP1). The starting material is an W-nitroacetyl amino acid ester that can be either mono-or bis-allylated at the methylene adjacent to the nitro group. Reduction of the N02 to NHOH using zinc/ ammonium chloride, followed by cyclization, leads to the desired products (Scheme 76). Compound (215) is unique in that it possesses a chiral center at C-3 and a quaternary carbon at C-6 on a l-hydroxypiperazine-2,5-dione system. 

The filtered reaction mixtures from the zinc-ammonium chloride reductions of aromatic nitro compounds have been added to aqueous solutions of ferric chloride. Within 10-15 min the oxidation to nitroso compounds was completed. In the oxidation of nine different hydroxylamines, yields ranged from 30 to 60% [86a, b]. 

Selective reduction to hydroxylamine can be achieved in a variety of ways the most widely applicable systems utilize zinc and ammonium chloride in an aqueous or alcoholic medium. The overreduction to amines can be prevented by using a two-phase solvent system. Hydroxylamines have also been obtained from nitro compounds using molecular hydrogen and iridium catalysts. A rapid metal-catalyzed transfer reduction of aromatic nitroarenes to N-substituted hydroxylamines has also been developed the method employs palladium and rhodium on charcoal as catalyst and a variety of hydrogen donors such as cyclohexene, hydrazine, formic acid and phosphinic acid. The reduction of nitroarenes to arylhydroxyl-amines can also be achieved using hydrazine in the presence of Raney nickel or iron(III) oxide. ... 

Dimethylaniline has been prepared by reduction of the corresponding nitro compound, either chemically or catalyti-cally. It has been prepared from 3,4-dimethylphenol by heating with ammonia, ammonium bromide, and zinc bromide from w-toluidine hydrochloride by alkylation with methanol at high temperatures from anhydro-4-amino-2-methylbenzyl alcohol by dry distillation from calcium hydroxide from 2-methyl-S-aminobenzyl alcohol by reduction with sodium from 2-methyl-5-nitrobenzyl chloride and 2-methyl-S-nitrobenzyl acetate by catalytic reduction from o-xylene by direct amination with hy-droxylamine hydrochloride in the presence of aluminum chloride and from 3,4-dimethylacetophenone by the Beckmann rearrangement of the oxime.i" The present method has been published. ... 

Indium metal is used for the reduction of imines (Scheme 8.96), iminium salts, quinolines (Scheme 8.97), conjugate alkenes, nitro compounds (Scheme 8.98), and azides in aqueous ethanolic ammonium chloride [128a-g]. Oximes (Tab. 8.24) [128 a, h] and azides are also reduced to the corresponding amines with indium in acidic THF (Tab. 8.25) [128i]. 

Under suitable conditions it is possible to isolate the A-substituted hydroxylamines that are formed as intermediates in the reduction of nitro compounds. For this purpose it is essential in the reduction of aromatic nitro compounds to work with neutral or nearly neutral solutions suitable reducing agents are hydrogen and platinum oxide catalysts in glacial acetic acid,82,83 zinc dust in ammonium chloride solution,84 aluminum amalgam,85 and ammonium sulfide.86 Aliphatic nitro compounds may be reduced as their alkali salts (nitronates) by diborane in tetrahydrofuran, then giving A-alkylhydroxyl-amines 87 for instance, A-cyclohexylhydroxylamine is thus obtained from nitrocyclohexane in 53% yield. However, aliphatic nitro compounds are converted into A-alkylhydroxylamines more simply by catalytic hydrogenation in the presence of palladium-barium sulfate unlike aromatic nitro compounds, aliphatic nitro compounds require an acid medium for reduction to hydroxylamines an oxalic acid medium has proved the most suitable. 

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