Sulfuric Acid → (6-Methyl-3-nitropyridin-2-yl)acetonitrile

Participants

Reaction Steps

A mixture of (3-nitro-6-(dicarbo-t-butoxymethyl)-2-pyridyl)acetonitrile (6.85 g, 18.2 mmol), dioxane (150 mL), and 2M sulfuric acid (25 mL) was heated at reflux for 12 hours. The resulting solution was cooled, neutralized with sodium carbonate, and extracted with ethyl acetate (3×50 mL). These extracts were combined, dried (MgSO4), and evaporated under reduced pressure to yield an oil. This oil was passed through a silica gel filter (approximately 100 g) followed by methylene chloride. This filtrate was evaporated under reduced pressure to afford (6-methyl-3-nitro-2-pyridyl)acetonitrile (1.91 g, 10.8 mmol, 59%) as an off-white solid: mp, 70°-72° C.; IR (KBr) 2,245, 1,595, 1,580, 1,515, 1,450, 1,370, 1,340 cm-1 ; 1H NMR (CDCl3) δ 8.38 (d, J=8.4 Hz, 1H), 7.37 (d, J=8.4 Hz, 1H), 4.39 (s, 2H), 2.70 (s, 3H); 13C NMR (CDCl3) δ 164.7, 145.3, 142.1, 133.8, 123.9, 115.1, 27.1, 24.7; LRMS (m/z, relative intensity) 178 (29), 177 (M+, 93), 160 (16), 132 (26), 131 (92), 105 (37), 104 (100), 92 (32), 79 (50), 78 (51), 77 (81), 63 (54); HRMS 3.98; N, 23.72; found: C, 53.90; H, 3.95; N, 23.47.

Provenance & Evidence