Sodium hydride → 3-(1-Methylpyrrolidin-2-yl)pyridine

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

Sodium hydride (14.8 g, 0.616 mol of 60% dispersion in a mineral oil) was washed with toluene to remove the mineral oil and added to 100 ml of o-xylene. To this was added (R)-nicotine (10 g, 0.0617 mol). The reaction mixture was refluxed for 15 hrs, cooled to 0° C., the excess sodium hydride decomposed using dilute HCl (15%, 100 ml), the aqueous layer separated, the pH of the aqueous layer adjusted to >13 at 0° C. and extracted with dichloromethane. The solvent was then removed completely and the crude obtained was further purified by vacuum distillation at 0.1 mm Hg to get (R,S)-nicotine (6.68 g, 66.8% Y, 98.5% purity by GC, optical rotation: 0.8°)

Provenance & Evidence