Nitriles, catalytic hydrogenation cleavage

Catalytic hydrogenation is commonly used for the reduction of alkenes, alkynes, aromatic hydrocarbons, and aromatic heterocycles, carbonyl derivatives, nitriles, and nitro compounds. The reaction with alkenes proceeds on the surface of a heterogeneous metal catalyst, via cleavage of diatomic hydrogen and adsorption... 

Ring fused products can be elaborated from isoxazolines (80S757). Several nitrocyclo-alkenes (516) were prepared and reacted with phenyl isocyanate to generate the intermediate nitrile oxides which underwent internal cycloaddition to afford the tricyclic isoxazolines (517). Cleavage of the N—O bond by hydrogenation in the presence of a catalytic amount of Raney nickel and subsequent hydrolysis afforded the /3-ketol (518 Scheme 113). 

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