Nitrile nicotinamide

P-Cyanopyridine. Mix 25 g. of powdered nicotinamide with 30g. of phosphoric oxide in a 150 ml. distilling flask by shaking. Immerse the flask in an oil bath and arrange for distillation under a pressure of about 30 mm. Raise the temperature of the oil bath rapidly to 300°, then remove the oil bath and continue the heating with a free flame as long as a distillate is obtained. The nitrile crystallises on cooling to a snow-white solid. Redistil the solid at atmospheric pressure practically all of it passes over at 201° and crystallises completely on cooling. The yield of p-cyanopyridine, m.p. 49°, is 20 g. 

Owing to poor volatihty, derivatization of nicotinic acid and nicotinamide are important techniques in the gc analysis of these substances. For example, a gc procedure has been reported for nicotinamide using a flame ionisation detector at detection limits of - 0.2 fig (58). The nonvolatile amide was converted to the nitrile by reaction with heptafluorobutryic anhydride (56). For a related molecule, quinolinic acid, fmol detection limits were claimed for a gc procedure using either packed or capillary columns after derivatization to its hexafluoroisopropyl ester (58). 

Some companies are successfully integrating chemo- and biocatalytic transformations in multi-step syntheses. An elegant example is the Lonza nicotinamide process mentioned earlier (.see Fig. 2.34). The raw material, 2-methylpentane-1,5-diamine, is produced by hydrogenation of 2-methylglutaronitrile, a byproduct of the manufacture of nylon-6,6 intermediates by hydrocyanation of butadiene. The process involves a zeolite-catalysed cyciization in the vapour phase, followed by palladium-catalysed dehydrogenation, vapour-pha.se ammoxidation with NH3/O2 over an oxide catalyst, and, finally, enzymatic hydrolysis of a nitrile to an amide. 

Nitrile hydratase (NHase) catalyzes the hydration of nitriles to amides (Figure 1.11) and has been used for production of acrylamide and nicotinamide at large scale. NHases are roughly... 

Nicotinamide is prepared by partial hydrolysis of the nitrile, or by animation of nicotinic acid chloride or its esters, Some of the compounds mentioned in the foregoing aie shown below. 

Dehydration of benzamide, nicotinamide, stearamide and oleamide is studied using sulphated zirconia as catalyst. Complete conversion to corresponding nitriles could be achieved when the reactions were carried out in water immiscible solvents. The order of reactivity of the different amides seems to be governed by the ease of the dissociation of the C=0 bond of the amide. 

In basic chemicals, nitrile hydratase and nitrilases have been most successful. Acrylamide from acrylonitrile is now a 30 000 tpy process. In a product tree starting from the addition of HCN to butadiene, nicotinamide (from 3-cyanopyridine, for animal feed), 5-cyanovaleramide (from adiponitrile, for herbicide precursor), and 4-cyanopentanoic acid (from 2-methylglutaronitrile, for l,5-dimethyl-2-piperidone solvent) have been developed. Both the enantioselective addition of HCN to aldehydes with oxynitrilase and the dihydroxylation of substituted benzenes with toluene (or naphthalene) dioxygenase, which are far superior to chemical routes, open up pathways to amino and hydroxy acids, amino alcohols, and diamines in the first case and alkaloids, prostaglandins, and carbohydrate derivatives in the second case. 

Nitrile Hydratase Acrylamide from Acrylonitrile, Nicotinamide from 3-Cyanopyridine, and 5-Cyanovaleramide from Adiponitrile... 

Characteristic of this process are its extremely high concentration level and space-time-yield (Figure 7.2). Solid nitrile substrates render precipitating product up to a solid medium at high degrees of conversion liquid nitriles can be run as neat substrate. Figure 12.3 illustrates the connection between substrate concentration up to 15 m ( ) and achievable degree of conversion for the example of the transformation of 3-cyanopyridine to nicotinamide discussed in Chapter 7, Section 7.1.1.2. 

Nicotinic acid undoubtedly provides the basic skeleton for some other alkaloids. Ricinine (Figure 6.35) is a 2-pyridone structure and contains a nitrile grouping, probably formed by dehydration of a nicotinamide derivative. This alkaloid is a toxic constituent of castor oil seeds (Ricinus communis Euphorbiaceae), though the toxicity of the seeds results mainly from the polypeptide ricin (see page 434). Arecoline (Figure 6.36) is found in Betel nuts (Areca catechu Palmae/Arecaceae) and is a tetrahydronicotinic acid derivative. Betel nuts are chewed in India and Asia for the stimulant effect of arecoline. 

Another direct route leads, as we shall now demonstrate, to pyridones. These useful compounds are the basis for nucleophilic substitutions on the ring (Chapter 43). We choose an example that puts a nitrile in the 3-position. This is significant because the role of nicotinamide in living things (Chapter 50) makes such products interesting to make. Aldol disconnection of a 3-cyano pyridone starts us on the right path. 

Interestingly, the by-product in the above-described hydrocyanation of butadiene, 2-methylglutaronitrile, forms the raw material for the Lonza process for nicotinamide (see earlier) [123]. Four heterogeneous catalytic steps (hydrogenation, cyclisation, dehydrogenation and ammoxidation) are followed by an enzymatic hydration of a nitrile to an amide (Fig. 1.50). 

As mentioned in Chapter 1 the same Rhodococcus rhodochrous catalyses the last step in Lonza s >3500 tonnes/year nicotinamide synthesis [94, 111, 112]. Lonza has further developed this technology and currently synthesises a number of relevant fine chemical building blocks with nitrile hydratases [94, 113]. 

FIGURE 17.19 Nitrile hydratase-catalyzed production of nicotinamide. 

Nagasawa, T., Mathew, C.D., Manger, 1., et al. 1988. Nitrile hydratase-catalysed prodnction of nicotinamide from 3-cyanopyridine in Rhodococcus rhodochrous 11. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 54 1766-9. 

Rhodococcus sp. N-774 and Pseudomonas chlororaphis B23 resting cells have been used at industrial scale (as first- and second-generation biocatalysts) for the biological production of acrylamide from acrylonitrile since the 1980s [21]. Currently Rhodococcus rhodochrous J1 is being adopted as a third-generation biocatalyst (Mitsubishi Rayon Co.). The industrial production of nicotinamide from 3-cyanopyridine is also operated with this strain (Lonza AG). However, despite the enormous potentiality of nitrile-hydrolyzing biocatalysts for industrial applications, only a few commercial processes have been realized [22]. 

Similar data were obtained for 3-cyanopyridine biotransformation into nicotinamide and nicotinic acid (unpublished data). The higher dependence of the nitrile hydratase deactivation process on temperature has already been observed with other substrates, such as in acrylonitrile bioconversion into acrylamide where the nitrile hydratase half-Ufe dropped from 33 h to approximately 7h when the temperature was varied from 4 to 10 °C [37]. 

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