Formamide //-alkyl amine

Since the amides (especially the formamides) are easily cleaved under hydrolysis conditions to amines, the Ritter reaction provides a method for achieving the conversions R OH R NH2 (see 10-32) and alkene R NH2 (see 15-8) in those cases where R can form a relatively stable carbocation. The reaction is especially useful for the preparation of tertiary alkyl amines because there are few alternate ways of preparing these compounds. The reaction can be extended to primary alcohols by treatment with triflic anhydride ° or Ph2CCl" SbClg or a similar salt in the presence of the nitrile. 

The Ritter reaction proceeds by a nucleophilic addition of hydrogen cyanide followed by the hydrolysis of the intermediate formamide. Higher tertiary alkyl amines are produced using the same method with higher alkenes and alcohol. This is considered the most practical way to produce tertiary amines [99]. 

Ritter Reaction (Method 4). A small but important class of amines are manufactured by the Ritter reaction. These are the amines in which the nitrogen atom is adjacent to a tertiary alkyl group. In the Ritter reaction a substituted olefin such as isobutylene reacts with hydrogen cyanide under acidic conditions (12). The resulting formamide is then hydroly2ed to the parent primary amine. Typically sulfuric acid is used in this transformation of an olefin to an amine. Stoichiometric quantities of sulfate salts are produced along with the desired amine. 

Aldehydes, formates, primary, and secondary alcohols, amines, ethers, alkyl halides, compounds of the type Z—CH2—Z, and a few other compounds add to double bonds in the presence of free-radical initiators/ This is formally the addition of RH to a double bond, but the R is not just any carbon but one connected to an oxygen or a nitrogen, a halogen, or to two Z groups (defined as on p. 548). The addition of aldehydes is illustrated above. Formates and formamides " add similarly ... 

Alkylation of enamines Addition of amines to triple-bond compounds Addition of amines to aldehydes or ketones Reaction between Grignard reagents and formamides Reaction of phosphonates with aldehydes or ketones... 

Secondary amines, such as pyrrolidine, must be alkylated with care too polar a solvent leads to participation of a second nearby polymer-bound alkylant in the formation of a quaternary ammonium salt, along with the desired immobilized trialkyl amine. The exception, as seen above, is diisopropylamine, which refuses to displace tosylate even in the refluxing pure amine, or in hot dimethyl-formamide or other polar solvent, while metal diisopropylamide is notorious as a powerful non-nucleophilic base. However, carboxamide is not difficult to form from (carboxymethyl)polystyrene, again using toluenesulfonyl chloride as condensing agent this can then be reduced to (diisopropyl-ethylaminoethyl)polystyrene, which is of interest as a polymer-bound non-nucleophilic base. ... 

Preparation of formamides from COz and a non-tertiary amine by homogeneous hydrogenation has been well studied and is extremely efficient (Eq. (12)). Essentially complete conversions and complete selectivity can be obtained (Table 17.3). This process seems more likely to be industrialized than the syntheses of formic acid or formate esters by C02 hydrogenation. The selectivity is excellent, in contrast to the case for alkyl formates, because the amine base which would stabilize the formic acid is used up in the synthesis of the formamide consequently little or no formic acid contaminates the product. The only byproducts that are likely to crop up in industrial application are the methylamines by overreduction of the formamide. This has been observed [96], but not with such high conversion that it could constitute a synthetic route to methylamines. 

Reductive alkylation can also be accomplished by heating carbonyl compounds at 150-250° with 4-5 mol of ammonium formate, formamide, or formates or formamides prepared by heating primary on secondary amines with formic acid at 180-190° (Leuckart reaction) [322]. An excess of85-90% formic acid is frequently used. Formyl derivatives of primary or secondary amines are sometimes obtained as products and have to be hydrolyzed to the corres-... 

Ihnat and coworkers substituted the primary amine group with a series of gradually increasing alkyl amides 113-119, aromatic amides 120 and 121, succinamide 122 and methylsulfonamide 123 with a systematic increase in partition coefficient (octanoFwater), to increase permeability while retaining iron-chelating ability. The formamide derivative... 

The hydroxyquinoline (39-2) provides the starting material for a quinolone that incorporates a hydrazine function. Reaction of (39-2) with 2,4-dintrophenyl O-hydroxylamine ether (41-1) in the presence of potassium carbonate leads to a scission of the weak N-O hydroxylamine bond by the transient anion from the quinolone the excellent leaving character of 2,4-dinitrophenoxide adds the driving force for the overall reaction, resulting in alkylation on nitrogen to form the hydrazine (41-2). The primary amine is then converted to the formamide (41-3) by reaction with the mixed acetic-formic anhydride. Alkylation of that intermediate with methyl iodide followed by removal of the formamide affords the monomethylated derivative (41-4). Chlorine at the 7 position is then displaced by A-methylpiperazine and the product saponified. There is thus obtained amifloxacin (41-6) [48]. 

Tertiary A-alkyl-A,A-bis(2-fluoro-2,2-dimtroethyl)amines containing N-methylene or A -methyl groups are oxidized by chromium trioxide in acetic acid to AW-bis(2-fluoro-2,2-dinitroethyl)formamides [S5] (equation 82)... 

It should be noted that the production of formic acid from C02 and H2 proceeds with a net increase in free energy under ambient conditions, but that an increased pressure of H2 and C02 will shift the equilibrium favorably. When alkyl formates or formamides are produced from C02, H2, and the amine or alcohol, the stability of the water formed in the reaction provides a powerful driving force, and the thermodynamics of these reaction are favorable under ambient conditions. 

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