Nitriles 1,3,4-oxadiazoles

Isoxazoles unsubstituted in the 3-position react with hydroxide or ethoxide ions to give )3-keto nitriles (243) -> (244). This reaction involves nucleophilic attack at the 3-CH group. 1,2-Benzisoxazoles unsubstituted in the 3-position similarly readily give salicylyl nitriles (67AHC(8)277), and 5-phenyl-l,3,4-oxadiazole (245) is rapidly converted in alkaline solution into benzoylcyanamide (246) (61CI(L)292). A similar cleavage is known for 3-unsubstituted pyrazoles and indazoles the latter yield o-cyanoanilines. 

Likewise, trifluoromethyl-substituted nitrile imines [172] and nitnle oxides [173,174, 7 75] have been used to synthesize tnfluoromethyl substituted five-membered ring systems of the pyrazole, isomzole, isoxazohne, and 1,2,4-oxadiazole... 

Certain 1,3,4-oxadiazole and 1,2,4-triazole glyphosate derivatives have been conveniently prepared in a faster, more efficient manner by heating the thionoester intermediates 73 with the appropriate acid hydrazide (61). These versatile thionoesters 73 have been synthesized in nearly quantitative yield from the readily available nitrile 31a, described previously, through the intermediate imidate ester 72. The oxadiazole products such as 70 obtained using this procedure were identical to those obtained from the HHT approach. 

Various derivatives were synthesized from the corresponding nitriles 178 as depicted in Scheme 3. A number of functional groups were introduced, including substituted thiazoles 179, oxadiazoles 180, and pyrimidine 181 <2004JME1329>. 

Microwave irradiation induces 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of nitrones, such as 152, with aliphatic and aromatic nitriles in the absence of solvent. The products of these reactions are the corresponding 2,3-dihydro-l,2,4-oxadiazoles 156 (Scheme 9.48). The use of microwaves led to yields that were always higher than those obtained with classical heating, with the differences being more significant with the less reactive nitriles [99]. 

Figure 5 1,2,4-Oxadiazoles that undergo fragmentation by loss of a nitrile oxide fragment.

Microwave irradiation of amidoximes in the presence of an aldehydes under solvent-free conditions has been reported to give fully conjugated 1,2,4-oxadiazoles directly, a process that is notable because the amidoximes can be prepared in the same reaction vessel from a nitrile and hydroxylamine (Scheme 33) <2006TL2965>. 

The cycloaddition of nitrile oxides to nitriles in the presence of a Pd(ll) center allowed the isolation of the previously unknown l,2,4-oxadiazole-Pd(n) species 227 (Equation 44) <2005EJI845>. 

The Mukaiyama-Hoshino reaction between a nitroalkane and phenyl isocyanate generates a nitrile oxide, and this method has been used in the synthesis of 1,2,4-oxadiazoles as discussed in CHEC-II(1996) <1996CHEC-II(4)179>. In a more recent advance, nitroethane undergoes ultrasound-mediated cycloaddition with trichloroacetonitrile to give the extremely useful (see Equation 11) 5-trichloromethyl-l,2,4-oxadiazole 228 (Equation 45) <1995TL4471>. 

The oxidation of aromatic aldoximes with ceric ammonium nitrate produces nitrile oxides which undergo subsequent cycloaddition to nitriles to produce 1,2,4-oxadiazoles (Equation 47) <1997PJC1093>. The anodic oxidation of aromatic aldoximes in the presence of acetonitrile has been reported to give low yields of either 3-aryl-5-methyl-1,2,4-oxadiazoles (2-25%) or 3,5-bis-aryl-l,2,4-oxadiazoles (6-28%), although the synthetic utility of this route is limited by competitive deoximation to the carbonyl being the major reaction pathway <1997MI3509>. 

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>. 

The cycloaddition of nitrile oxide 235 to the 4-iminobenzopyran-2-one 236 gave the fully conjugated 1,2,4-oxadiazole 238 directly, a reaction that most likely proceeds via loss of methanol from the intermediate 237 (Scheme 36) <1996JHC967>. Similarly, nitrile oxide 239 reacted with imine 240 to give the 1,2,4-oxadiazole 242 via the nonisolable intermediate 241 <2002PJC1137>. 

Fluorinated 1,2,5-oxadiazoles 255 (Equation 52) undergo photolytic loss of a nitrile fragment and reaction with a nucleophile to give the fluorinated 1,2,4-oxadiazoles 256 <2000TL7977, 2001T5865, 2004JFC165>. 

In a significant addition to the synthesis of 1,2,4-oxadiazoles (Scheme 41), Itoh et al. discovered that the treatment of nitriles with iron(lll) nitrate in the presence of acetone or acetophenone gives the 3-acetyl- or 3-benzoyl-l,2,4-oxadiazoles 260, proposing that enolization and nitration gives an a-nitroketone, which then undergoes an acid-catalyzed dehydration to give the nitrile oxides 259 <2005S1935>. 

In a similar approach (Equation 53), the use of a resin-bound nitrile allowed access to the corresponding resin-bound amidoximes 274, which could be converted into 1,2,4-oxadiazoles 275 via acylation with either an appropriate acid halide/ anhydride in the presence of a base or a carboxylic acid in the presence of a coupling reagent followed by cyclization, where the latter step was performed by heating in pyridine or diglyme and could be accelerated by the use of a microwave oven. Cleavage from the resin was easily achieved by the use of TFA in dichloromethane <2000BML1431>. 

Rice and Nuss report that the Argopore MB-CHO polymer-supported amidoximes 282 (readily available from the nitrile 281), shown in Scheme 46, can be acylated with acid chlorides in the presence of excess pyridine to give the O-acylamidoximes 283. Cyclization was carried out with TBAF in THF at ambient temperature, to give the polymer-supported 1,2,4-oxadiazoles 284. Release of the 1,2,4-oxadiazoles 285 from the polymer support was achieved by treatment with 95% trifluoroacetic acid <2001BML753>. 

A new three-component approach to the highly substituted 2,5-dihydro-l,2,4-oxadiazoles 359 has been reported from the reaction of nitriles 354 under mild conditions with iV-alkylhydroxylamines 355 in the presence of electron-deficient alkynes 356 (Scheme 60) <20050L1391>. This synthesis is proposed to proceed via the initial formation of the alkyl or arylamidoximes 357, which then undergo a sequential double Michael addition to the electron deficient alkyne. The intermediate alkyl or arylamidoximes 357 can be isolated and then reacted with the alkyne to produce the product. The initial Michael adduct 358 is stable in cases where R2 is H. 

The cyclic nitrone 365 reacts with the metal-coordinated nitrile 366 to give the complex 367 from which the bicyclic 2,3-dihydro-l,2,4-oxadiazole 368 was liberated by the use of l,2-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)ethane (dppe) (Scheme 61) <2003JCD2540>. 

The major fragmentation in mass spectra of 1,2,5-oxadiazoles is attributed to the loss of nitrile and nitrile oxide or expulsion of NO. The conversion of 3,4-dicyano-l,2,5-oxadiazole-2-oxide (3,4-dicyanofuroxan) 10 to cyanogen iV-oxide 11 (Equation 5) was investigated under the conditions of collisional activation (CA) and neutralization-reionization (NR) mass spectrometry. Flash vacuum thermolysis mass-spectrometry (FVT-MS) and flash vacuum thermolysis infra-red (FVT-IR) investigations of furoxans 10, 12, and 13 reveal that small amounts of cyano isocyanate accompany the formation of the main thermolysis product 11 <2000J(P2)473>. 

The reaction of 3,4-diacyl-l,2,5-oxadiazole 2-oxides (furoxans) with activated nitriles in ionic liquids and in ethanol unexpectedly resulted in 3-acyl-4-acylamino-l,2,5-°xadiazoles (furazans) <2003MC230>. 3-Formyl-4-phenyl-l,2,5-oxadiazole Ar-oxide 105 is a good precursor for the synthesis of functional substituted furoxans (Scheme 28) <1999JME1941, 2000MOL520, 2000JFA2995>. 

The 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azido-l,2,5-oxadiazoles (azidofurazans) to dicarbonyl compounds has been studied and a new procedure for the synthesis of (l,2,3-triazol-l-yl)-l,2,5-oxadiazoles was proposed <2002MC159>. The cycloaddition of 4-amino-3-azido-l,2,5-oxadiazole 168 to nitriles with activated methylene groups has been studied, and 3-amino-4-(5-amino-l/7-l,2,3-triazol-l-yl)-l,2,5-oxadiazoles 169 and the products of their Dimroth rearrangement 170 have been synthesized <2004MC76>. 

Dimerization of nitrile oxides derived from 4-amino- and 4-R-substituted l,2,5-oxadiazole-3-carbohydroximoyl chlorides 201 leads to the formation of tricyclic furoxans 200 or compound 202 (Scheme 45) <2001RJ01355>. 

In the presence of bis(acetylacetonato)nickel, a-dicarbonyl compounds readily add at the nitrile group of 4-R-substituted l,2,5-oxadiazole-3-carbonitriles 219 to form enaminofurazans 220. The adducts obtained from 4-amino-3-cyanofurazan underwent intramolecular cyclization upon heating with acetic acid in ethanol to give furazano[3,4- ]pyridine 221 derivatives in high yields (Scheme 51) <2001RCB1280>. 

Nitrile oxides are widely used as participants in 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions leading to five-membered heterocycles. Nitrile oxides (especially for lower aliphatic and acyl nitrile oxides) can dimerize easily to form l,2,5-oxadiazole-2-oxides (Equation 67) <2003JA15420>. 

Di-(2,3,4,6-tetra-0-acetyl-a-D-mannopyranosyl)-l,2,5-oxadiazole 2-oxide 306 was synthesized from D-mannose 305 by a route involving dimerization of mannopyranosyl nitrile oxide as the key step. Three methods were used for the generation of the nitrile oxide isocyanate-mediated dehydration of nitromethylmannose derivatives, treatment of aldoxime with aqueous hypochlorite, and base-induced dehydrochlorination of hydroximoyl chloride (Scheme 76) <2001TL4065, 2002T8505>. 

Glycosyl nitrile oxides 315, generated in situ by reaction of hydroxamoyl chlorides with DBU, participate in 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with substituted alkenes leading to glycosyl isoxazolines the l,2,5-oxadiazole-2-oxides 316 are isolated as by-products in low yields (Scheme 79) <2004CHC353>. 

These routes are dimerization to furoxans 2 proceeding at ambient and lower temperatures for all nitrile oxides excluding those, in which the fulmido group is sterically shielded, isomerization to isocyanates 3, which proceeds at elevated temperature, is practically the only reaction of sterically stabilized nitrile oxides. Dimerizations to 1,2,4-oxadiazole 4-oxides 4 in the presence of trimethylamine (4) or BF3 (1 BF3 = 2 1) (24) and to 1,4,2,5-dioxadiazines 5 in excess BF3 (1, 24) or in the presence of pyridine (4) are of lesser importance. Strong reactivity of nitrile oxides is based mainly on their ability to add nucleophiles and particularly enter 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions with various dipolarophiles (see Sections 1.3 and 1.4). 

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