Dimethyl pyridine-2,6-carboxylate → Methyl 6-(hydroxymethyl)picolinate

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

A suspension of dimethyl 2,6-pyridine-dicarboxylate (50 g, 0.25 mol) in methanol (400 mL) and tetrahydrofuran (150 mL) was heated to dissolve and while the solution was still hot, it was treated in portions with sodium borohydride (9.1 g, 0.24 mol). The mixture was stirred for 1 hour after the addition, cooled to 25° C., quenched with 10% citric acid (80 mL), stirred for 15 minutes, filtered, and concentrated. A solution of the concentrate in dichloromethane was dried over sodium sulfate, filtered, and concentrated. A solution of the residue in hot ethyl acetate was allowed to stand for 16 hours at 25° C. The resulting precipitate (23 g) was collected by filtration. The mother liquor was concentrated and the resulting solid was purified by flash chromatography on silica gel eluting with 10% methanol in dichloromethane to give the crude white solid (24 g). The solid was crystallized in ethyl acetate to give a total yield of the title compound (36 g, 84% yield).

Provenance & Evidence