Nitrile oxides deoxygenation

The cycloaddition of nitrile oxides to amidoximes 234 leads to 1,2,4-oxadiazole 4-oxides which can then be deoxygenated with trimethyl phosphite (Equation 48) <1997T1787>. 

Some routes of chemical transformations of nitrile oxides connected with the problem of their stability were briefly discussed in Section 1.2. Here only two types of such reactions, proceeding in the absence of other reagents, viz., dimerization to furoxans and isomerization to isocyanates, will be considered. All other reactions of nitrile oxides demand a second reagent (in some cases the component is present in the same molecule, and the reaction takes place intramolecularly) namely, deoxygenation, addition of nucleophiles, and 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions. Also, some other reactions are presented, which differ from those mentioned above. 

Deoxygenation by NO proceeds rather slowly, and nitrile oxides take part simultaneously in two other reactions (a) dimerization to furoxans 23 and (b) interaction with NO2 which is formed in the reaction, to give aryltrini-tromethanes. The most unstable of the known arenecarbonitrile oxides, benzonitrile oxide, owing to its fast dimerization gives no phenyltrinitromethane but only furoxans. Products similar to both cited reactions are formed with N2O3 because of its known equilibrium with NO and NO2 (112). 

Nitrile oxides display three types of reactivity (apart from isomerization and deoxygenation) 1,3-cycloaddition, 1,3-addition, and dimerization to furoxans. The first can give isoxazolines and isoxazoles directly. The second can give isoxazolines and isoxazoles indirectly. The third (which may be regarded as a carbenoid reaction,62 but see also Lo Vecchio et al.63) is an undesirable side reaction as far as the synthesis of isoxazoles is concerned. Thus, although many methods for generating nitrile oxides are available, and in some cases they may be isolated and used, methods capable of generating them in the presence of the substrate are preferred. 

Deoxygenation of Nitrones, Nitrile Oxides and Tertiary Amine Oxides... 

Methods of deoxygenation of nitrones (28), nitrile oxides (29), heteroaromatic N-oxides (30) and tertiary amine oxides (31) are described in this section. There are some reagents, such as trialkyl phosphites, which can deoxygenate compounds of all these types as well as those in the preceding section, whereas others are more limited in scope. Oae and coworkers have outlined three distinct mechanistic types of deoxygenation process, which are illustrated in Scheme 17. Clearly, a mechanism of type C will not apply to tertiary amine oxides (31) on the other hand, these compounds are more easily deoxygenated than heteroaromatic N-oxides, such as (30), by some reagents because the aromatic N-oxides are inherently more stable. 

The deoxygenation of nitrile oxides is rarely an important reaction, but some of the standard methods referred to above have been used, including reaction with trimethyl phosphite and with iron pentacar-... 

Nitrile oxides are readily deoxygenated in high yield by trimethyl or triethyl phosphite. The reaction is carried out by heating the reactants in benzene for... 

A further example of the deoxygenation of a nitrile oxide (generated by thermolysis of a 1,2,5-oxadiazole) to give a nitrile has been reported. Several alkyl nitroso-compounds, e.g. (28), are deoxygenated by phosphites, and nitrenes are suggested as being precursors of the reaction products. ... 

Hydrolyses of carbamoylpyrazine A -oxides to carboxypyrazine IV-oxides have been described in Section 8A(2), deoxygenation and chlorination of carbamoylpyrazine A -oxides (A -unsubstituted carbamoyl compounds gave the nitrile) in Section V.IG, and deoxygenation of carbamoylpyrazine A -oxides (which also contained amino groups) in Section VIII.3C(4). In addition, 4-methyl-2-A -methyl-A -phenylcarbamoyl-3-oxo-3,4-dihydropyrazine 1-oxide refluxed with aqueous ethanolic sodium dithionite gave 4-methyl-2-Af-methyl-Af-phenylcarbamoyl-3-oxo-3,4-dihydropyrazine (1137), and 3,5-bis(methylamino)-3-A -methylcarbamoyl-pyrazine 1-oxide was deoxygenated by heating at 190-200° and 0.25 mm (462). 

Reductive desulfurization of the dithioketals 5.14 and 5.15 is performed under the same conditions as for thioethers [G02] LAH in the presence of copper salts or borohydrides in the presence of nickel salts (Figure 5.8). The deoxygenation of tertiary amine-oxides such as 5.16 and 5.17 can be performed with borohydride exchange resin-copper sulfate in methanol at room temperature or under reflux. This reaction tolerates other functional groups such as carbon-carbon double bonds, chlorides, epoxides, esters, amides, nitriles, sulfoxides, and sulfones [SA4] (Figure 5.8). 

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