Acetonitrile → 1-Propylpyrrolidine-2,4-dione

Freshly prepared 1-propyl-2,4-dioxopyrrolidine was prepared by heating together 3-carboethoxy-1-propyl-2,4-dioxopyrrolidine (1.16 g) (U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,568, Example 52d describes the preparation of the methoxy compound; the ethoxy compound may be prepared in a similar manner), and acetonitrile (100 ml). After heating for 1.5 hours the volatiles were removed under aspirator vacuum and the residue consisting of crude 2,4-dioxopyrrolidine was taken up in toluene (4 ml). This solution was added dropwise to a refluxing mixture of 2-amino-3-methylbenzonitrile from Example 1(0.48 g) and p-toluenesulfonic acid (36 mg) in toluene (10 ml). The refluxing mixture was surmounted with a Dean-Stark trap to collect water evolved in the reaction as the azeotrope with toluene. Following the addition of 2,4-dioxopyrrolidine (about 60 minutes), the mixture was heated for an additional 2 hours, then excess toluene was removed by distillation. After cooling to ambient temperature, the residue was partitioned between ethyl acetate and saturated aqueous NaHCO3. After separation of the layers, the ethyl acetate layer was washed once with brine, dried (MgSO4) and concentrated to leave an orange gum. Chromatographing the material over silica gel using ethyl acetate as the eluent afforded the desired product (0.70 g, 75%) as a white solid; tlc, Rf =0.21, silica gel, ethyl acetate.