Quinaldine formation from quinoline

Several products other than 2,2 -biaryls have been isolated following reaction of pyridines with metal catalysts. From the reaction of a-picoline with nickel-alumina, Willink and Wibaut isolated three dimethylbipyridines in addition to the 6,6 -dimethyl-2,2 -bipyridine but their structures have not been elucidated. From the reaction of quinaldine with palladium-on-carbon, Rapoport and his co-workers " obtained a by-product which they regarded as l,2-di(2-quinolyl)-ethane. From the reactions of pyridines and quinolines with degassed Raney nickel several different types of by-product have been identified. The structures and modes of formation of these compounds are of interest as they lead to a better insight into the processes occurring when pyridines interact with metal catalysts. 

A second similar synthesis, due to Doebner and Miller, leads to the formation of substituted quinolines. The simplest example is the production of quinaldine from aniline and paraldehyde by heating with concentrated hydrochloric acid. The course of the reaction is closely related to that of the Skraup synthesis by route II. There the aniline reacts with acrolein, here with crotonaldehyde, which is easily formed under the conditions which prevail ... 

This is an example of the Doebner synthesis of quinoline-4-carboxylic acids (cinchoninic acids) the reaction consists in the condensation of an aromatic amine with pyruvic acid and an aldehyde. The mechanism is probably similar to that given for the Doebner-Miller synthesis of quinaldine (Section V,2), involving the intermediate formation of a dihydroqulnoline derivative, which is subsequently dehydrogenated by the Schiff s base derived from the aromatic amine and aldehyde. 

---