Nitroalkanes dehydration mechanisms

The most widely used method for the dehydration of primary nitroalkanes involves their treatment with phenyl isocyanate and triethylamine, introduced in 1960 by Hoshino and Mukaiyama (7). A probable mechanism for the formation of the nitrile oxide is shown in Scheme 6.4. This method is known to be very effective for the preparation of aliphatic or aromatic nitrile oxides. In some cases, the separation of the byproduct A,A -diphenylurea from the reaction mixture may be troublesome. In order to circumvent this problem, 1,4-phenylene diisocyanate was introduced (82,83). The polymeric urea that is formed as a byproduct is largely insoluble in the reaction mixture and can easily be removed. 

The other method starts from nitroalkanes and is a dehydration. Inspect the two molecules and you will see that the nitro compound contains H2O more than the nitrile oxide. But howto remove the molecule of water The reagent usually chosen is phenyl isocyanate (Ph-N=C=0). which removes the molecule of water atom by atom to give aniline (PhNHa) and C02. This is probably the mechanism, though the last step might not be concerted as we have shown. 

The mechanism proposed by the authors is depicted in this scheme. A first equivalent of a,fS-unsaturated aldehyde was activated as its corresponding iminium ion by chiral diphenylprolinol trimethylsilyl ether and then underwent the first nitromethane Michael addition to afford a nitroalkane enamine intermediate. Subsequent hydrolysis generated a nitroaldehyde intermediate and the catalyst, which could promote a second Michael addition with a second equivalent of iminium, furnishing an enamine intermediate. This enamine reacted via an intramolecular aldol cyclization to give a novel iminium intermediate. After hydrolysis, the catalyst was regenerated, and the intermediate alcohol could be dehydrated to afford the final products. 

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