Nitro esters, reduction

Coumarin-3-carboxylic acid, 6-nitro-ethyl ester reduction, 3, 691 Coumarinic acid synthesis, 3, 685 Coumarinoisocoumarin synthesis, 3, 834 Coumarins acetoxylation, 3, 680 acylation, 3, 689 annelated... 

Other zinc reductions have been used extensively. Zinc dust in aqueous ammonium chloride is a standard reagent for the reductive cyclization of nitro esters to hydroxamic acids. These reactions are usually carried out at low temperatures (0°-10°) to avoid further reduction. Despite the fact that good yields can often be obtained, these reductions are highly capricious, depending on the quality of the zinc (impurities seem to improve the reaction) and other unknown factors. 

Earlier, the reduction of y-nitro esters with zinc and ammonium chloride had been shownto provide a suitable route to A-hydroxy 2-pyiTolidones, e.g., 42. Various catalytic hydrogenation procedures can also effect the same reductive cyclization. ... 

Perhaps the most reliable method for the reductive cyclization of a nitro ester to a hydroxamic acid is that which involves treatment with sodium horohydride in the presence of palladium on charcoal. Although under these conditions aromatic nitro compounds are reduced to amines, o-nitro esters such as 53, in which the ester group is suitably oriented with respect to the nitro group, give good yields of cyclic hydroxamic acids (54). Coutts and his co-... 

Hydrogen gas can be replaced by ammonium formate for the reduction of nitro compounds to amines. The ammonium formate method is efficient, and the rapid workup procedure by simple filtratkin makes it widely used for converting the NO to the NH. ° For example, ct-nitro esters are reduced to ct-amino esters in excellent yields on treatment v/ith HCO NH and PdAZ in methanol. ... 

Pd(0)-catalyzed substitution reaction, a novel, mild reduction of a-nitro ester to an amino acid ester with TiCl3, and an improved procedure for uracil ring formation. 

Barton and coworkers have explored the arylation of various nucleophiles including nitroalkanes using bismuth reagents.105 Reaction of 2-nitropropane with triphenylbismuth carbonate gives 2-nitro-2-phenylpropane in 80% yield.106 Recently, this arylation has been used for the synthesis of unusual amino acids. Arylation of a-nitro esters with triphenylbismuth dichloride followed by reduction gives unique a-amino acids (Eq. 5.68).107... 

Reduction of nitro esters to amino esters is easy, since most of the reagents used for the reduction of a nitro group to an amino group do not attack the ester group. Ethyl 2-chloro-4-nitrobenzoate was quantitatively hydrogenated to either ethyl 2-chloro-4-aminobenzoate or 4-aminobenzoate over palladium [7057]. 

Iron and acetic or dilute hydrochloric acid can be safely used for the reduction of nitro group to an amino group in nitro esters. The problem arises when a nitro ester is to be reduced to a nitro alcohol. Nitro groups are not inert toward the best reagents for the reduction of esters to alcohols, complex hydrides. However the rate of reduction of a nitro group by lithium... 

Nitro ester 274 undergoes reduction with iron in acetic acid to afford thieno benzoxazepine 275 (Scheme 59 (1994JHC1053)). An alternative route to 275 by the intramolecular formation of a Qhiene 0 bond has been reported (2002JHC163). 

The requisite hydroxylamine function for such cyclizations can also be generated from a precursor having a nitro group. This novel route has provided access to hitherto unknown l-hydroxy-6-allyl-, and -6,6-bisallyl-piperazine-2,5-diones (91UP1). The starting material is an W-nitroacetyl amino acid ester that can be either mono-or bis-allylated at the methylene adjacent to the nitro group. Reduction of the N02 to NHOH using zinc/ ammonium chloride, followed by cyclization, leads to the desired products (Scheme 76). Compound (215) is unique in that it possesses a chiral center at C-3 and a quaternary carbon at C-6 on a l-hydroxypiperazine-2,5-dione system. 

Reduction of RCOCI to RCHO. Sodium borohydride and this cadmium salt reduce acyl chlorides to aldehydes, but only in solvents such as DMF, DMA, and HMPT. DMF is essential, but the amount of DMF in the salt is sufficient. For the most part, yields are 50-90%. Aryl, alkyl, and benzylic halides do not react. Other functional groups (nitrile, nitro, ester, C=C) are also inert. 

Some unusual benzylic functional groups can be reduced to hydrocarbons using NaBH4 alone in alcohols (equation 54). Choice of solvent can be used to enhance (or reduce) the reductive power of NaBIL. Thus in DMSO (or sulfolane), NaBH4 effectively reduces primary, secondary and tertiary benzylic halides to alkanes, leaving nitro, ester and carboxylic acids untouched (equation 55). There... 

Nitrate ion can be another effective nucleophile for inversion. It has been demonstrated that, due to the low basicity of the nucleophile, the competing elimination reaction is almost completely suppressed and the resulting nitro esters can be readily converted into alcohols by reductive processes. One serious... 

---