Nitroalkanes nitroalcohols

Nitromethane is the most reactive nitroalkane that favors strong reaction to the tris adduct (see Nitroalcohols). 

Method A ct,ct-Donbly deprotonated nitroalkanes react with aldehydes to give intermediate nitronate alkoxides, which afford iyti-nitroalcohols as major products d8 7-47 3 by kmedc protonadon at -100 C in THF-HMPA. The carcinogenic hexamethylphosphorons triamide fHMPAi can be replaced by the ntea derivadve (T)MPU. ... 

The Henry (nitroaldol) reaction was reported under very mild reaction conditions, in aqueous media using a stoichiometric amount of a nitroalkane and an aldehyde, in NaOH 0.025 M and in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC1) as cationic surfactant (Eq. 8.94) 240 Good to excellent yields of (i-nitroalkanol are obtained. Under these conditions several functionalities are preserved, and side-reactions such as retro-aldol reaction or dehydration of 2-nitroalcohols are avoided. 

The procedure described in Sect. 14.9.1 for addition of nitroalkane anions to activated alkenes can also be used for addition to aldehydes. The nitroalcohol formed can be dehydrated in almost quantitative yields in dilute H3PO4 in a subsequent step [130, 131]. Starting with... 

Internal DCR of Nitroaldol Libraries (Scheme 6.10) [5,6] iDCR was demonstrated by using a conceptual nitroaldol library including five benzaldehyde derivatives (24,36, and 47-49) and one nitroalkane (50, DCL-F, Scheme 6.11). The benzaldehydes, all with a unique substitution pattern, were selected in order to make analysis clear and simple. However, one of the henzaldehydes contained a cyano functionality in the 2-position (49), deliberately making it a candidate for subsequent tandem cyclization following nitroalcohol formation. 5-exo-dig type cyclizations of hydrox-ynitriles to the corresponding iminolactones are expected [40,41], albeit unexplored [42 5], intramolecular transformations, which in this case could lead to possible kinetic resolution of the library. 

Synthetic routes to a-nitroalkenes have been discussed in previous sections. General routes include (1) treating /3-nitroacetates with alkali metal acetates, carbonates or bicarbonates, (2) elimination of water from /3-nitroalcohols via heating with phthalic anhydride or in the presence of a base," ° and (3) degradation of the Mannich products derived from a primary nitroalkane, formaldehyde, and a secondary amine. ... 

Polynitroaliphatic alcohols are invaluable intermediates for the synthesis of energetic materials (see Section 1.11). The most important route to /i-nitroalcohols is via the Henry reaction where a mixture of the aldehyde and nitroalkane is treated with a catalytic amount of base, or the nitronate salt of the nitroalkane is used directly, in which case, on reaction completion, the reaction mixture is acidified with a weak acid. Reactions are reversible and in the presence of base the salt of the nitroalkane and the free aldehyde are reformed. This reverse reaction is known as demethylolation if formaldehyde is formed. 

The nitroaldol (Henry) reaction, first described in 1859, is a carbon-carbon bondforming reaction between an aldehyde or ketone and a nitroalkane, leading to a nitroalcohol adduct [29]. The nitroalcohol compounds, synthetically versatile functionalized structural motifs, can be transformed to many important functional groups, such as 1,2-amino alcohols and a-hydroxy carboxylic acids, common in chemical and biological structures [18, 20, 30, 31]. Because of their important structural transformations, new synthetic routes using transition metal catalysis and enzyme-catalyzed reactions have been developed to prepare enantiomerically pure nitroaldol adducts [32-34]. 

In the preparation of dynamic nitroaldol systems, different aldehydes and nitroalkanes were first evaluated for reversible nitroaldol reactions in the presence of base to avoid any side- or competitive reactions, and to investigate the rate of the reactions. 1H-NMR spectroscopy was used to follow the reactions by comparison of the ratios of aldehyde and the nitroalcohols. Among various bases, triethylamine was chosen as catalyst because its reactions provided the fastest exchange reaction and proved compatible with the enzymatic reactions. Then, five benzaldehydes 18A-E and 2-nitropropane 19 (Scheme 9) were chosen to study dynamic nitroaldol system (CDS-2) generation, because of their similar individual reactivity and product stabilities in the nitroaldol reaction. Ten nitroaldol adducts ( )-20A-E were generated under basic conditions under thermodynamic control, showing... 

Caldarelli et al. (240) have recently reported a five-step synthesis of substituted p)Trole libraries L22 and L23 using solid-supported reagents and scavengers. The synthesis involved oxidation of benzyl alcohols Mi to aldehydes (step a, Fig. 8.46), Henry reaction of aldehydes 8.91 with nitroalkanes M2 (step b), and acylation and elimination of nitroalcohols 8.93 (steps c and d) to give the nitrostyrenes 8.94, which were subjected to 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with an isocyanoacetate (step e) to give the pyrroles 8.95. N-alkylation of these pyrroles with alkyl halides (step f) and final library-from-a-library hydrolysis/decarboxylation of L22 gave a library of trisub-stituted pyrroles L23 (step g. Fig. 8.46). 

Knoevanagel reaction, 575 myo-inositol, 579 nitrile oxides, 582 nitroalcohols, 571 nitroalkane cyclizations, 571, 585, 586... 

The presence of the intramolecular hydrogen bond between NO2 and OH groups or NO3 and NH groups was later confirmed by the author [61] on the basis of ultraviolet spectra of ca. SO nitroalcohols, diols and -aminomethyl- nitroalcohols and the comparison of their spectra with those of nitroalkanes. 

First encouraging results for a stereoselective synthesis in general were reported by Seebach in 1982, who investigated the syn/anti-diastereoselectivity starting from achiral aldehydes and nitroalkanes [4,5]. Barrett et al. examined the influence of nonchiral Lewis acids on the syn/anti diastereoselectivity [6]. Stoichiometric amounts of an enantiomerically pure aldehyde were used in a di-astereoselective reaction with 3-nitropropionate by Hanessian et al. [7]. However, an approach to enantioselective synthesis of nitroalcohols via the route of the asymmetric Henry reaction could not be carried out until almost one hundred years after the discovery of the nitroaldol reaction. 

In 1992, Shibasaki et al. reported for the time an application of chiral heterobimetallic lanthanoid complexes (LnLB) as chiral catalysts in asymmetric catalysis, namely the catalytic asymmetric nitroaldol reaction (Henry reaction), which is one of the most classical C-C bond forming processes [11]. Additionally, this work represents the first enantioselective synthesis of (3-nitroalcohol compounds by the way of enantioselective addition of nitroalkanes to aldehydes in the presence of a chiral catalyst. The chiral BINOL based catalyst was prepared starting from anhydrous LaCl3 and an equimolar amount of the dialkali metal salt of BINOL in the presence of a small amount of water [9]. 

Henry reaction can occur between nitroalkane and aldehyde to form P-nitroal-cohol. Lower nitroalkanes can react with formaldehyde through addition reaction to form P-nitroalcohol. 

A fascinating variant of the enzymatic cyanohydrin formation consists in the use of nitroalkanes (as nonnatural nucleophiles) instead of cyanide (Scheme 2.209) [1568,1569]. Overall, this constitutes a biocatalytic equivalent to the Henry-reaction producing vicinal nitro-alcohols, which are valuable precursors for amino alcohols. Using (5)-HNL, the asymmetric addition of nitromethane to benzaldehyde gave the nitroalcohol in 92% e.e., while for p-nitrobenzaldehyde the stereoselectivity dropped sharply. With nitroethane, two stereocenters are created Whereas the stereoselectivity for the alcoholic center was high (e.e. 95%), the recognition for the adjacent center bearing the nitro moiety was modest and other (dia)stereomers were formed in up to 8%. 

A variety of solid bases are active for nitroaldol reactions. Hydrotalcite with OH or BuO ions are very active for the reaction of various aldehydes with nitroalkanes to afford nitroalcohols (85,86). The reaction of benzaldehyde... 

Several review articles on nitroalkane chemistry and reactions are available [10]. The base-catalyzed reaction of nitroparaffins with formaldehyde yields the corresponding nitroalcohols. 

Keywords Nitroalkanes, a,p-unsaturated ketones, aldehydes, CTAOH, solvent-free, room temperature, Michael reaction, Henry reaction, p-nitroalcohols... 

The Henry reaction, or nitroaldo reaction, is one of the classic carbon-chain formation methods utilized in organic synthesis. It involves the condensation of nitroalkanes with aldehydes or ketones in the presence of bases (often catalytic amount) to afford the mixtures of diastereomeric 2-nitroalcohols, which in turn can be converted into other useful synthetic intermediates, such as 2-aminoalcohols, a-hydroxyketones, homologous ketones, and perhaps most importantly, nitroalkenes through various functional transformations. 

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