Acetic Anhydride → N-(2-Acetylphenyl)acetamide

Participants

Reaction Steps

A mixture of 2-acetylaniline (1 ml; 8.3 mmol) and acetic anhydride (10 ml) was stirred overnight at ambient temperature. Saturated aqueous sodium carbonate was added till basic reaction and the resulting mixture was extracted with ethyl acetate. The organic phase was dried over sodium sulphate and evaporated under reduced pressure to leave N-(2-acetylphenyl)acetamide quantitatively. This product was dissolved in ethanol (40 ml) and hydroxylamine, hydrochloride (0.94 g; 13.6 mmol) was added. The mixture was heated to reflux for 7 hours and then left at ambient temperature overnight. The solvent was removed by evaporation and the residue was partitioned between ethyl acetate and aqueous sodium carbonate. The organic phase was concentrated and subjected to chromatography on silica gel using a mixture of ethyl acetate and methanol (9:1 v/v) as the eluent. Yield: 0.26 g (15%). Mp. 99-100° C.

Provenance & Evidence