Water → 2-Fluoro-6-hydroxybenzonitrile

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

151 g (1 mol) of 2-fluoro-6-methoxybenzonitrile and 346.5 g (3 mol) of pyridinium hydrochloride were introduced into a 2 l flask and then slowly heated to 190° C. under a protective gas atmosphere and then stirred at this temperature for 5 h. The mixture was cooled by slowly stirring to room temperature overnight. Then 1000 ml of water were added, and the mixture was heated to 80° C. After adding 1000 ml of methyl tert.-butyl ether, the phases were separated and the aqueous phase was back-extracted twice with 500 ml of methyl tert.-butyl ether. The combined methyl tert.-butyl ether phases were washed once with 800 ml of 10% strength aqueous sodium hydroxide solution and once with 400 ml of water. The two aqueous phases were combined, adjusted to pH 2 with concentrated hydrochloric acid and washed three times with 500 ml of methylene chloride. Then, the combined organic phases were washed once with 10% strength hydrochloric acid. The organic phase was dried over sodium sulfate. Finally, the solvent was distilled off in vacuo. Yield: 120 g (87% of theory) of the desired product of purity >99% according to GC.

Provenance & Evidence