Hydrogenation to diamines

Nearly all the dinitrotoluenes are hydrogenated to diamines, which are converted into diisocyanates to give toluene diisocyanate, a monomer for polyurethane. A small amount of the dinitrotoluenes is further nitrated to the explosive 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). 

Lew and Kim [66] recently synthesized a sulfide isostere of carbocyclic influenza neuraminidase inhibitor 268, moving from trityl protected aziridine 266, in turn prepared from (-)-quinic acid 159 (Scheme 43). Ring opening of 266 with 1-propanethiol promoted by BF3 etherate, followed by acetylation, gave sulfide 267 which was finally hydrogenated to diamine 268, in a good chemical yield. As the authors expected, mercapto-derivative 268 resulted to be a strong inhibitor of... 

All industrial polyurethane chemistry is based on only a few types of basic isocyanates. The most significant aromatic diisocyanates are TDI and MD. TDI is derived from toluene. This is initially nitrated to dinitrotoluene, then hydrogenated to diamine, and finally phosgenated to diisocyanate. A defined mixture of isomers comprising toluene-2,4-and 2,6-diisocyanate is obtained. Approximately 1.3 million tons/year of TDI are produced world-wide, most of which is used in the production of polyurethane flexible foam materials. 

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