Nitro-Alkanes

The selection of solvents for quantitative work is not easy. Nitro-alkanes are sufficiently inert, but nitronium tetrafluoroborate is poorly soluble in them c. 0-3 %). Nitronium salts react rapidly with acetic anhydride, and less rapidly with acetic acid, A, A -dimethylformamide and acetonitrile, although the latter solvent can be used for nitration at low temperatures. Sulpholan was selected as the most suitable solvent ... 

Mechanism The reaction of and A -steroids with nitrosyl fluoride to form ni trimines is best discussed in conjunction with the nitrosyl chloride reaction leading tothe5a-chloro-6 -nitro steroids (33). Since nitroso alkanes are oxidized with nitrosyl chloride to nitro alkanes it is believed that 5a-chloro-6j5-nitro steroids are formed in this way from an initially formed 5a-chloro-6 -nitroso adduct. The same is true for nitrosyl fluoride up to the stage of the nitroso fluoride (56). Since NOF is a weaker oxidizing agent than NOCl the nitroso fluoride tautomerizes to the fluoro oxime (57) at a rate... 

The conversion of a primary or secondary nitro alkane 1 to a carbonyl compound 3 via an intermediate nitronate 2 is called the Nef reaction. Since carbonyl compounds are of great importance in organic synthesis, and nitro alkanes can on the other hand be easily prepared, the Nef reaction is an important tool in organic chemistry. 

Various side-reactions may complicate the course of the Nef reaction. Because of the delocalized negative charge, the nitronate anion 2 can react at various positions with an electrophile addition of a proton at the a-carbon reconstitutes the starting nitro alkane. 1. The nitrite anion can act as leaving group, thus leading to elimination products. 

Bei der Reduktion von Aldehyden und Ketonen werden neben den Alkoholen auch Di- und Polysulfane er-halten (s. S. 276), mit aromatischen Nitrilen im UberschuB5, mit Oxiranen (S. 422) und mit Thiiranen (S. 449) werden Thioamide, Dihydroxy-disulfane oder Polysulfane gebildet. Mit Thiolen entstehen Borsaure-trithioester, die mit Aldehyden und Ketonen Thioacetale ergeben6. Prim. Nitro-alkane Iiefern Nitrile, sek. Ketone und Oxime (S. 472), Nitro-aromaten die entspreehenden Amine (S. 478). Oxime konnen selektiv zu Hydroxylaminen Oder weiter zu Aminen reduziert werden (S. 375). 

Nitro-nitrate mit endstandiger Nitro-Gruppe liefern bei dcr Reduktion mit 3,5 Mol-Aquivalenten Natriumboranat4 die sonst nur schwierig zuganglichen terminalen Nitro-alkane. 

Nitroso-l-nitro-alkane werden durch komplexe Hydride zu Oximen, Hydroxylami-nen bzw. Aminen reduziert (s.S. 472) aus 1,1,1-Trinitro-alkanen werden Amine erhalten (s.S. 472). 

Nitro-olefine werden von Zinn(II)-chlorid in waBrigem Methanol zu einem Ge-misch aus Nitro-alkan und Oxim (s. Bd. X/4, S. 153) reduziert. 

Auch primare und sekundare Nitro-alkane werden durch Chrom(II)-chlorid iiber die Imine in die entsprechenden Carbonyl-Verbindungen umgewandelt1 ... 

Zu beachten ist, dal3 /l-arylierte Nitro-alkane bei der Reduktion umlagern konnen (s. untcn). 

Nitrile oxides are usually prepared via halogenation and dehydrohalogenation of aldoximes [11] or via dehydration of primary nitro alkanes (Scheme 1) [12]. However, it is important to note that nitrile oxides are relatively unstable and are prone to dimerization or polymerization, especially upon heating. 1,3-Dipolar cycioaddition of a nitrile oxide with a suitable olefin generates an isoxazoline ring which is a versatile synthetic intermediate in that it provides easy access to y-amino alcohols, )5-hydroxy ketones, -hydroxy nitriles, unsaturated oximes, and a host of other multifunctional molecules (Scheme 1) [5a]. Particularly for the formation of )5-hydroxy ketones, nitrile oxide-olefin cycioaddition serve as an alternative to the Aldol reaction. 

Although the unsaturated nitrile oxides 124 can be prepared via the aldoxime route (see Scheme 8), the older procedure suffers from the disadvantage that a tenfold excess of allyl alcohol and two additional steps are required when compared to Scheme 15. Therefore, unsaturated nitro ether 123 that can be prepared by condensation of an aldehyde 120 and a nitro alkane followed by Michael addition of alcohol 122, was a useful precursor to nitrile oxide 124 [381. The nitrile oxide 124 spontaneously cyclized to ether 125. This procedure is particularly suitable for the synthesis of tetrahydrofurans (125a-h) and tetrahydropyrans (125i-k) possessing Ar substituents in 72-95% yield (Table 12). The seven-membered ether 1251 was obtained only in 30% yield on high dilution. The acetylenic nitro ether 126 underwent INOC reaction to provide the isoxazole 127. 

As we found that furan and thiophene substituted oximes can be used as substrates for the INOC reactions (Eq. 5) [29b] similarly, furan substituted nitro alkane 134 is also a good substrate for INOC reactions (Eq. 13) [40]. The furfuryl derivative 134, prepared via Michael addition of furfuryl alcohol to 4-methoxy- -nitrostyrene, was subsequently transformed without isolation of the intermediate nitrile oxide 135 to the triheterocyclic isoxazoline 136 as a 5 1 mixture of isomers in high yield. 

The key step in the diastereoselective synthesis of model insect antifeedant 152 starting from a-cyclocitral 148 was the INOC reaction of oxime 149 or nitro alkane 150 to the isoxazoline 151 (Eq. 15) [42]. 

The Michael reaction of benzylidene acetophenone and benzylidene acetone with ethyl acetoacetate, nitromethane, and acetylacetone was studied by Musaliar and co-workers in the presence of a cetyltrimethy-lammonium bromide-containing aqueous micellar medium.50 The Michael reaction of various nitro alkanes with electrophilic alkenes is performed in NaOH (0.025-0.1 M) in the presence of cetyltrimethylam-monium chloride (CTACI) without any organic solvent (Eq. 10.23).51... 

The energetical description of rotations around bonds with high torsional barriers (e.g. the C=C double bond) demands the evaluation of the influence of higher cosine terms. Rotations around single bonds with sixfold symmetric torsional potentials have very low barriers (18) they occur in alkylsubstituted aromatic compounds (e.g. toluene), in nitro-alkanes and in radicals, for example. 

Tertiary nitro alkanes or activated nitro groups are reduced to the alkane with loss of the nitro group by a combination of PhSiH3 and catalytic amounts of Oz-BubSnH and l,T-azobis(cyclohexanecarbonitrile) (ACHN), even in the presence of other potentially reducible functional groups.555 The examples shown in Eqs. 331 and 332 illustrate this behavior.555... 

Nitroaldol (Henry) reaction of nitro alkanes with sugar aldehydes... 

The classical Henry reaction conditions (base catalyzed addition) have some drawbacks sometimes the nitro alcohols are obtained in low yields and diastereoselectivities are not always high. To improve these results, a number of modifications were introduced. One of them is the Seebach s silyl nitronate method,25 that involves a reaction between an aldehyde with a silyl nitronate prepared by metalation of the corresponding nitro alkane with LDA, followed by reaction of the resulting nitronate with tert-butyldimethylsilyl chloride.26... 

Michael addition of nitro alkanes to a,p-unsaturated carbonyl sugar derivatives... 

It is to be noted that cupric acetate has been used to oxidize other systems, for example, a-ketols, phenols, thiols, and nitro-alkanes. 

Bachman, G. B., and N. W. Connon. Nitration studies. XIV. Conversion of nitrite and nitrate esters into nitro alkanes. J. Org. Chem. 34 4121-4125, 1969. 

They suggested conducting the reaction at concentrations of the initial reagents, 1-halo-l-nitro-alkane and sodium nitrite, exceeding 1 mol Then, because of the low solubility of molecular oxygen in water (approximately 10 mol L ), the presence of oxygen does not affect the yield of the target product. An increase in the concentration of nitrite ion promotes ter Meer reaction. 

This review presents an evaluation of the experimental material available to illustrate the scope and limitations of the dialdehyde-nitro-alkane cyclization and its preparative utility as a synthetic entry to branched chain aminocyclanols and aminosugars. 

The effect of temperature on the reduction of nitro-alkanes has been extensively exploited in the synthesis of cp-ephedrine analogues [i5,21,22] starting from 1-aryl-2-nitropropenes which are easily converted to the substrates 2. Reduction of these nitrocompounds below 20° C affords the hydroxylamine. The amine is formed above 55° C. Neutralisation of either reaction mixture causes rapid intramolecular migration of the acetyl group from oxygen to nitrogen, a reaction which implies a... 

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