Nitro-compound, removal from mixture

Cautiously add 250 g. (136 ml.) of concentrated sulphuric acid in a thin stream and with stirring to 400 ml. of water contained in a 1 litre bolt-head or three-necked flask, and then dissolve 150 g. of sodium nitrate in the diluted acid. Cool in a bath of ice or iced water. Melt 94 g. of phenol with 20 ml. of water, and add this from a separatory funnel to the stirred mixture in the flask at such a rate that the temperature does not rise above 20°. Continue the stirring for a further 2 hours after all the phenol has been added. Pour oflF the mother liquid from the resinous mixture of nitro compounds. Melt the residue with 500 ml. of water, shake and allow the contents of the flask to settle. Pour oflF the wash liquor and repeat the washing at least two or three times to ensure the complete removal of any residual acid. Steam distil the mixture (Fig. II, 40, 1 or Fig. II, 41, 1) until no more o-nitrophenol passes over if the latter tends to solidify in the condenser, turn oflF the cooling water temporarily. Collect the distillate in cold water, filter at the pump, and drain thoroughly. Dry upon filter paper in the air. The yield of o-nitrophenol, m.p. 46° (1), is 50 g. 

Reduction of a nitro compound to a primary amine. In a 50 ml. round-bottomed or conical flask fitted with a reflux condenser, place 1 g. of the nitro compound and 2 g. of granulated tin. Measure out 10 ml. of concentrated hydrochloric acid and add it in three equal portions to the mixtiue shake thoroughly after each addition. When the vigorous reaction subsides, heat under reflux on a water bath until the nitro compound has completely reacted (20-30 minutes). Shake the reaction mixture from time to time if the nitro compound appears to be very insoluble, add 5 ml. of alcohol. Cool the reaction mixture, and add 20-40 per cent, sodium hydroxide solution imtil the precipitate of tin hydroxide dissolves. Extract the resulting amine from the cooled solution with ether, and remove the ether by distillation. Examine the residue with regard to its solubility in 5 per cent, hydrochloric acid and its reaction with acetyl chloride or benzene-sulphonyl chloride. 

Similarly, the reaction of nitro compounds with the M-Boc aromatic imines 86 occurred in the presence of the enantiopure protic catalyst 87, which is a white, crystalline bench-stable salt [52] (Scheme 15). The reactions of ni-tromethane, very slow at - 20 °C, were accelerated in the presence of 10 mol % of 87, and the /3-amino compounds 88 were obtained with moderate yields and moderate to high enantioselectivities. Positive results were also obtained in the corresponding reactions of nitropropane to give the products 90. Hence, the primary diamines 89 and 91 are available by this route, which is advantageous for the significantly lower cost and toxicity of the catalyst and its easy removal from the reaction mixture simply by a basic wash. These results should stimulate further research on the development of new acid-catalyzed systems. 

B. Reduction of Dinitrodurene.—A solution of 90 g. of dini-trodurene in 1 1. of glacial acetic acid is boiled in a 12-I. flask (Note 6) 700 g. of stannous chloride is dissolved in 800 cc. of concentrated hydrochloric acid and heated to boiling. The heat is removed from the acetic acid solution of the nitro compound, and the stannous chloride solution is poured very carefully (during about ten minutes) into the dinitrodurene solution. The reaction is complete in fifteen minutes, and as the solution cools the stannic chloride compound of the diamine begins to crystallize. The reaction mixture is cooled to io° in an ice-water bath, and the solid is filtered off by suction, washed twice with 50 cc. of 95 per cent ethyl alcohol and twice with 50 cc. of ether, and dried. The filtrates from the tin compound contain very little of the reduction product and may be discarded. The composition of this compound is [G (CH i)4(NH2-HCI)2l2-SnCl4, and it crystallizes from the reaction mixture in fine, glistening plates which are almost colorless. The yield is 145 g. (97 per cent of the theoretical amount). 

Mononitrotoluene along with the acid from which nitro compounds had been partly removed (the twice used acid) were run into a superdetoluator, a temperature of 50°C being maintained. Then about 200 1. of water were added to reduce the concentration of H2S04 below 73%. When the mixture had been cooled to 20-25°C stirring was stopped and the nitro compounds were separated Mid transferred to the detoluator (as described above). 

A small amount of additional 2-nitrothiophene and some 3-nitro-thiophene can be obtained by steam distillation of the acid filtrate of the original reaction mixture. Caution This compound is a vesicant— remove from exposed skin surfaces by washing with alcohol. Store in a brown bottle. 

The unextracted catalyst should be a bluish black, friable powder. It is a satisfactory catalyst for the dehydrogenation of alcohols and for the less difficult hydrogenation reactions, such as the reduction of nitro compounds. This mixture of copper chromite and copper oxide is somewhat less active and more susceptible of reduction to metallic copper than the catalyst from which the copper oxide has been removed by acid extraction. 

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