Direct nitration of alkanes

Nitroalkanes can be formed from the direct nitration of aliphatic and alicyclic hydrocarbons with either nitric acid ° or nitrogen dioxide in the vapour phase at elevated temperature. These reactions have achieved industrial importance but are of no value for the synthesis of nitroalkanes on a laboratory scale, although experiments have been conducted on a small scale in sealed tubes. 

The vapour phase nitration of hydrocarbons proceeds via a radical mechanism and so it is found that tertiary carbon centres are nitrated most readily, followed by secondary and primary 

The nitration of moderate to high molecular weight alkane substrates results in very complex product mixtures. Consequently, these reactions are only of industrial importance if the mixture of nitroalkane products is separable by distillation. Polynitroalkanes can be observed from the nitration of moderate to high molecular weight alkane substrates with nitrogen dioxide. The nitration of aliphatic hydrocarbons has been the subject of several reviews. 

Both nitric acid and nitrogen dioxide, in the liquid and vapour phase, have been used for the nitration of the alkyl side chains of various alkyl-substituted aromatics without affecting the aromatic nucleus.Thus, treatment of ethylbenzene with nitric acid of 12.5 % concentration in a sealed tube at 105-108 °C is reported to generate a 44 % yield of phenylnitroethane. The nitration of toluene with nitrogen dioxide at a temperature between 20-95 °C yields a mixture of phenylnitromethane and phenyldinitromethane with the proportion of the latter increasing with reaction temperature.  

The nitration of aliphatic hydrocarbons with dinitrogen pentoxide and nitronium salts has been described. Topchiev gives an extensive discussion of works related to hydrocarbon nitration conducted prior to 1956. 

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