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

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Reaction Steps

A suspension of dimethyl 2,6-pyridine-dicarboxylate (100 g, 513 mmol) in methanol (800 mL) and tetrahydrofuran (300 mL) was heated to dissolve and while the solution was still hot, it was treated in portions with sodium borohydride (18.2 g, 479 mmol) over 1 hour. The mixture was stirred for 1 hour at room temperature, cooled to 0-5° C., and quenched with 10% citric acid (160 mL), stirred for another 15 minutes, and filtered. The filtrate was concentrated, dissolved in dichloromethane, dried (sodium sulfate), filtered, and concentrated to a white solid. The solid was heated to dissolve in ethyl acetate (100 mL), stirred for 16 hours at room temperature, filtered and concentrated to give the title compound (44.5 g, 56% yield). 1H NMR (CDCl3) δ ppm 3.50(s, 1H), 4.00 (s, 3 H), 4.86 (s, 2 H), 7.52 (d, 1 H), 7.85 (t, 1 H), 8.04 (d, 1 H).

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