Nitromethane, purification

First, your Nitromethane may require purification, especially if it w/ as for "fuel" use. In this case, it needs to be vacuum distilled at a vacuum of better than 100mm Hg. At that pressure, it will come off at 47C. Distillation at atmospheric pressure is possible, but I do not recommend it due to the highly flammable nature of the compound and because it s flash point is 42C. It s your choice. 

For materials with very low melting points it is sometimes convenient to use dilute solutions in acetone, methanol, pentane, diethyl ether or CHCI3-CCI4. The solutions are cooled to -78° in a dry-ice/acetone bath, to give a slurry which is filtered off through a precooled Buchner funnel. Experimental details, as applied to the purification of nitromethane, are given by Parrett and Sun [J Chem Educ 54 448 7977]. 

To an ice-cold solution of the aldehydo sugar in CH,OH (ca. 25 mL per g) are added 3 equiv of nitromethane (or nitrocthane), followed by 2.9 equiv of sodium methoxide. After stirring for 2 h 45 min, the medium is neutralized by the addition of acidic Dowex 50, then filtered. Removal of the solvent by distillation and purification by chromatography on silica gel (Ei,0/hcxane) or on aluminum oxide (Et20) furnishes the product yield 85-99%. 

An anhydrous spectral grade of nitromethane, obtained from Fisher Scientific Company, was used without purification. 

Nitrogen, purification of, 41, 97 Nitromethane in condensation with formaldehyde, 41, 67 1-Nitro-l-methylcyclohexane, 43, 89... 

The condensation of nitro compounds and imines, the so-called aza-Henry or nitro-Mannich reaction, has recently emerged as a powerful tool for the enantioselective synthesis of 1,2-diamines through the intermediate /3-amino nitro compounds. The method is based on the addition of a nitronate ion (a-nitro carbanion), generated from nitroalkanes, to an imine. The addition of a nitronate ion to an imine is thermodynamically disfavored, so that the presence of a protic species or a Lewis acid is required, to activate the imine and/or to quench the adduct. The acidic medium is compatible with the existence of the nitronate anion, as acetic acid and nitromethane have comparable acidities. Moreover, the products are often unstable, either for the reversibility of the addition or for the possible /3-elimination of the nitro group, and the crude products are generally reduced, avoiding purification to give the desired 1,2-diamines. Hence, the nitronate ion is an equivalent of an a-amino carbanion. 

The heat of decomposition (238.4 kJ/mol, 3.92 kJ/g) has been calculated to give an adiabatic product temperature of 2150°C accompanied by a 24-fold pressure increase in a closed vessel [9], Dining research into the Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction of aromatic compounds (components unspecified) in nitrobenzene as solvent, it was decided to use nitromethane in place of nitrobenzene because of the lower toxicity of the former. However, because of the lower boiling point of nitromethane (101°C, against 210°C for nitrobenzene), the reactions were run in an autoclave so that the same maximum reaction temperature of 155°C could be used, but at a maximum pressure of 10 bar. The reaction mixture was heated to 150°C and maintained there for 10 minutes, when a rapidly accelerating increase in temperature was noticed, and at 160°C the lid of the autoclave was blown off as decomposition accelerated to explosion [10], Impurities present in the commercial solvent are listed, and a recommended purification procedure is described [11]. The thermal decomposition of nitromethane under supercritical conditions has been studied [12], The effects of very high pressure and of temperature on the physical properties, chemical reactivity and thermal decomposition of nitromethane have been studied, and a mechanism for the bimolecular decomposition (to ammonium formate and water) identified [13], Solid nitromethane apparently has different susceptibility to detonation according to the orientation of the crystal, a theoretical model is advanced [14], Nitromethane actually finds employment as an explosive [15],... 

Available from Aldrich Chemical Co. and used without further purification. Methylene chloride may be substituted for the nitro-methane. The checkers used reagent grade nitromethane available from Tokyo Kasei Kogyo Co. Ltd., Japan. 

Figure 1.6 ICH Class 2 solvents measured using GC. Purification of pravastatin sodium by preparative liquid chromatography. Reprinted from [15], copyright 2004, with permission from Elsevier. (Column 30 m X 0.53 mm i.d. 3 pm OVI-G43 (Supelco) carrier gas helium at 5 ml/min injection in split mode total flow 25 ml/min injector temperature 140 C flame ionization detector temperature 25C C and oven temperature 40°C for 20 min, to 240°C at 10°C/min, maintain at 240 C for 20 min. The components are 1 methanol, 3 acetonitrile, 4 dichloromethane, 5 hexane, 6 cw-l,2-dichloroeth-ylene, 7 nitromethane, 8 chloroform, 9 cyclohexane, 13 1,2-dimethoxyethane, 15 1,1,2-trichloroethyl-ene, 16 methylcyclohexane, 17 1,4-dioxane, 18 pyridine, 19 toluene, 20 2-hexanone, 21 chlorobenzene, 22 ethylbenzene, 23 m-xylene, 24p-xylene, 25 o-xylene, and 26 tetralin. The solvents are dissolved in DMF and heated at 80X for 60 min, and a sample of the headspace is injected.)...

Nitromethane was obtained from the Eastman Kodak Chemical Company and used without further purification. 

Nitromethane (NM) [5j] Commercially available NM contains water and 0.1 M of nitroethane, 2-nitropropane and propionitrile. Its purification is performed by combining a crystallization method with vacuum distillation. To a 1 1... 

SYNTHESIS A solution of 100 g of 2,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde in 220 g nitromethane was treated with 10 g anhydrous ammonium acetate, and heated on a steam bath for 2.5 h with occasional swirling. The deep-red reaction mixture was stripped of the excess nitromethane under vacuum, and the residue crystallized spontaneously. This crude nitrostyrene was purified by grinding under IPA, filtering, and air-drying, to yield 85 g of 2,5-dimethoxy-B-nitrostyrene as a yellow-orange product of adequate purity for the next step. Further purification can be achieved by recrystallization from boiling IPA. 

Chloro-7-bromo-l,2,3,5-tetrahydroimidazo[2,l-b]quinazolin-2-one was produced next way to a solution of 1.30 g (8 mmole) of anhydrous ferric chloride in 30 ml of nitromethane was added 1.30 g (5 mmole) of solid 6-chloro-l,2,3,5-tetrahydroimidazo[2,l-b]quinazolin-2-one and 0.80 g (5 mmole) of bromine. The system was stoppered, warmed to 50°C in an oil bath overnight, cooled to room temperature and the solvent removed in vacuo. The resulting solid was suspended in water (50 ml), the mixture was made basic (pH = 10) with sodium bicarbonate and stirred at home temperature for 20 min. The solid was filtered under suction, washed with water, then isopropyl alcohol and dried yielding 1.19 g of 6-chloro-7-bromo-l,2,3,5-tetrahydroimidazo[2,l-b]quinazolin-2-one (78% yield). Purification was effected by formation of the hydrochloride salt (mp 275°C) from acetonitrile. 

Nitromethane (bp 102°) is also useful for recrystallization and may be used as the reaction solvent in Friedel-Crafts reactions, in which it gives a homogeneous reaction mixture. Thorough purification is rather difficult, but for most purposes it is sufficient to distill the material. 

The use of ethyl [2-13C]acetoacetate instead of diethyl [2-t3CJmafonafe in the condensation reaction with 4H-pyran-4-one afforded ethyl 4-hydroxy[1 -13C]benzoate in 87% yield. In this case, 1.1 equiv of 4H-pyran-4-one and 1.1 equiv of potassium tert-butoxide were optimal. The addition of catalytic amounts of the base was not satisfactory. Ethyl [2-13C]acetoacetate was prepared from ethyl (2-13C]acetate as described for diethyl [2-13C]matonate.16 The maximum yield for this reaction on a 10-mmol scale was only 70% after distillation. 4H-Pyran-4-one reacted with nitromethane and potassium tert-butoxide (each 1.1 equiv) to afford 4-nitrophenol in 75% yield after purification by flash chromatography. This gives easy access to 4-nitro[4-13C]phenol. With 2,4-pentanedione, the condensation with 4H-pyran-4-one under the same reaction conditions gave 4-hydroxyacetophenone in 45-50% yield after purification. 

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