Sodium amide, reaction with pyridine

Figure 8-19. In the Chichibabin reaction a pyridine reacts with sodium amide in a solvent such as yV,yV-dimethylaminobenzene. The initial product is a dihydropyridine, which is oxidised to give a 2-aminopyridine. The attack of the amide nucleophile occurs predominantly at the 2-position of the pyridine.

Pyridine is an aromatic 6n electron heterocycle, which is isoelectronic with benzene, but electron deficient. Nucleophiles thus add almost invariably to carbon C2 of the imine-like C=N double bond. Perhaps the best known nucleophilic addition is the Chichibabin reaction with sodium amide in liquid ammonia, giving 2-aminopyr-idine. Reactions of the quinoline moiety of cinchona alkaloids can be more complex. Although expected 2 -addition can be achieved easily with organolithium reagents to yield 13 (Scheme 12.6) [9], LiAlH4, for example, has been shown to attack C4 en route to quincorine and quincoridine (Schemes 12.4 and 12.5). C4 selectivity is due to chelation of aluminum by the C9 OH oxygen. 

The Chichibabin reaction is historically the first S Ar reaction known for pyridine. It involves reaction with sodium amide (in toluene or dimethylaniline) and produces 2-aminopyridine 25 regioselectively ... 

Aminopyridines possess preparative interest and are conventionally prepared by substitution at ready-made pyridine rings. Pyridine may be converted into 2-aminopyridine using the so-called Chichibabin reaction in which pyridine is reacted with sodium amide in dimethylaniline [Eq.(26)]. 

There are three groups of substrates for which SNH reactions are especially characteristic (i) neutral azines and azoles (ii) azinium and azolium salts and (iii) nitro-arenes. Their electron-deficiency and, thus, their ability to react with nucleophiles strongly differ from each other. Azinium salts are the more electrophilic and are able to add even neutral nucleophiles very easily. Triazines,. v-tetrazines and polynitro-arenes also possess high electrophilicity. At the same time substrates such as pyridine (82JHC1285, 72JA682) and cinnoline (03CHE87), at a low temperature (e.g. in liquid ammonia as a solvent), do not react even with sodium amide. It should also be... 

The charge distribution in pyridine leads to deactivation for electrophilic substitution, the least for the position 3 (formation of 3-bromopyridine) at higher temperatures mainly 2-bromo-pyridine is produced by radical substitution. With sodium amide 2-aminopyridine is produced as a nucleophilic substitution reaction. 

In the laboratory of J.S. Felton, the synthesis of 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenyl-1/-/-imidazo[4,5- i]pyridine (PHIP), a mutagenic compound isolated from cooked beef, and its 3-methyl isomer have been accomplished. The synthesis of PHIP began with the commercially available 3-phenylpyridine, which was aminated at the 6-position with sodium amide in toluene by the Chichibabin reaction in 58% yield. 

The amidation of pyrido[2,3-cf]pyridazine with sodium amide occurs in position 2 to give 7. In such Chichibabin reactions, the product-determining loss of hydride ion appears to be mainly influenced by the negative charge on the adjacent N-atom 88 the higher charge density on the pyridine nitrogen of the pyrido[2,3-rf]pyridazine system favors ortho amination of the pyridine part.83... 

Amination of pyridine on heating with sodium amide in refluxing xylene observed by Chichibabin and Zeide nearly 100 years ago [132] was probably the first successful example of amino-dehydrogenation in the series of Jt-deficient aromatic systems. However, rather drastic reaction conditions and a requirement for an appropriate oxidant for the classic Chichibabin amination did not stimulate chemists in earlier days to enter this field of substitutions [23, 133, 134], Later on, van der Plas with coworkers [11, 19-21, 29, 35, 39, 40, 88], Vorbruggen [26], Pozharskii, Gulevskaya, and Maes [34, 45, 46, 48, 67, 68, 71, 72], McGill and Rappa [23], Pagoria, Mitchell, and Shmidt [59, 61, 63], Lopyrev [65, 66], Katritzky [58], and many other researches [11, 21, 45, 55, 58-74] contributed to the field of Sn amination reactions. 

Although pyridine is resistant to electrophilic aromatic substitution, it is susceptible to nucleophilic aromatic substitution. The reaction of 2-bromopyridine (44) and ammonia, for example, leads to 2-aminopyridine, 46. This is a nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction (see Chapter 21, Section 21.10), where NHg attacks the ipso carbon to generate a carbanionic intermediate (45), which loses bromine to give 46. Pyridine (10) also reacts directly with sodium amide (NaNHg) at 100°C to give 46 in what is known as the Chichibabin reaction, after Aleksei E. Chichibabin (Russia 1871-1945). 

Because the pyridine ring is relatively electron deficient, it undergoes nucleophilic substitution much more readily than does benzene (Section 22-4). Attack at C2 and C4 is preferred because it leads to intermediates in which the negative charge is on the nitrogen. An example of nucleophilic substitution of pyridine is the Chichibabin reaction, in which the heterocycle is converted into 2-aminopyridine by treatment with sodium amide in liquid anunonia. 

Tertiary benzylic nitriles are useful synthetic intermediates, and have been used for the preparation of amidines, lactones, primary amines, pyridines, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, and esters. The general synthetic pathway to this class of compounds relies on the displacement of an activated benzylic alcohol or benzylic halide with a cyanide source followed by double alkylation under basic conditions. For instance, 2-(2-methoxyphenyl)-2-methylpropionitrile has been prepared by methylation of (2-methoxyphenyl)acetonitrile using sodium amide and iodomethane. In the course of the preparation of a drug candidate, the submitters discovered that the nucleophilic aromatic substitution of aryl fluorides with the anion of a secondary nitrile is an effective method for the preparation of these compounds. The reaction was studied using isobutyronitrile and 2-fluoroanisole. The submitters first showed that KHMDS was the superior base for the process when carried out in either THF or toluene (Table I). For example, they found that the preparation of 2-(2-methoxyphenyl)-2-methylpropionitrile could be accomplished h... 

Pictet-Spengler cyclization of L-tryptophan with formaldehyde afforded the monochiral carboxylic acids 20a,b, whereas cyclization with acetaldehyde yielded the diastereomeric carboxylic acids 21a,b (23). Acids 20a,b with a hydrogen at C-1 are enantiomers, but acids 21a,b are diaste-reomers the cis isomer 21a was the major reaction product when the cyclization of L-tryptophan with acetaldehyde was carried out in the presence of sulfuric acid. Direct removal of the carboxy group in these acids is difficult, but it can be accomplished in several steps dehydration of the amides prepared from the acids with phosphorus oxychloride affords nitriles, and the nitrile group can be removed by reduction with sodium borohydride in pyridine-ethanol (31). 

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