Sodium Azide → 1-(Azidomethyl)-4-methoxybenzene

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

A solution of 4-methoxybenzyl chloride 1000 (51.8 g, 331.0 mmol) in anhydrous DMF (200 mL) was treated with solid sodium azide (21.5 g, 331.0 mmol, 1.0 equiv) at 25° C., and the resulting mixture was stirred at 25° C. for 24 h. When TLC and HPLC/MS showed that the reaction was complete, the reaction mixture was quenched with H2O (400 mL) and ethyl acetate (EtOAc, 400 mL) at room temperature. The two layers were separated, and the aqueous layer was extracted with EtOAc (200 mL). The combined organic extracts were washed with H2O (2×200 mL) and saturated NaCl aqueous solution (100 mL), dried over MgSO4, and concentrated in vacuo. The crude 4-methoxybenzyl azide (51.2 g, 53.95 g theoretical, 94.9% yield) was obtained as colorless oil, which by HPLC and 1H NMR was found to be essentially pure and was directly used in the subsequent reaction without further purifications. For 4-methoxybenzyl azide 1001: 1H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3) δ 3.84 (s, 3H, ArOCH3), 4.29 (s, 2H, Ar—CH2), 6.96 (d, 2H, J=8.7 Hz), 7.28 (d, 2H, J=7.8 Hz).

Provenance & Evidence