Carboxylic acid derivatives synthesis 2-amino-2- acetonitrile

The reaction of carboxylic acids with the PhI(OAc)2-iodine system may result in a decarboxylation ieading to the intermediate formation of a carbon-centered radical, which can be further oxidized to a carbocation and trapped by a nucleophile. This process has been utilized in several syntheses [97, 615,616, 617]. In a typical example, the oxidative decarboxylation of uronic acid derivatives 568 in acetonitrile under mild conditions affords acetates 569 in good yields (Scheme 3.225) [615]. A similar oxidative decarboxylation has been be used for the synthesis of 2-substituted pyrrolidines 571 from the cyclic amino acid derivatives 570 [616,617]. 

Hydroxy-L-prolin is converted into a 2-methoxypyrrolidine. This can be used as a valuable chiral building block to prepare optically active 2-substituted pyrrolidines (2-allyl, 2-cyano, 2-phosphono) with different nucleophiles and employing TiQ as Lewis acid (Eq. 21) [286]. Using these latent A -acylimmonium cations (Eq. 22) [287] (Table 9, No. 31), 2-(pyrimidin-l-yl)-2-amino acids [288], and 5-fluorouracil derivatives [289] have been prepared. For the synthesis of p-lactams a 4-acetoxyazetidinone, prepared by non-Kolbe electrolysis of the corresponding 4-carboxy derivative (Eq. 23) [290], proved to be a valuable intermediate. 0-Benzoylated a-hydroxyacetic acids are decarboxylated in methanol to mixed acylals [291]. By reaction of the intermediate cation, with the carboxylic acid used as precursor, esters are obtained in acetonitrile (Eq. 24) [292] and surprisingly also in methanol as solvent (Table 9, No. 32). Hydroxy compounds are formed by decarboxylation in water or in dimethyl sulfoxide (Table 9, Nos. 34, 35). 

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