Joydev K.
Laha
*,
Surabhi
Panday
,
Pankaj
Gupta
and
Shiv Raj
Seth
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology (Process Chemistry), National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, S. A. S. Nagar, Punjab 160062, India. E-mail: jlaha@niper.ac.in
First published on 2nd December 2022
A chemoselective reduction of a nitro group in the presence of an aldehyde or ester group integrated with another synthetic transformation leading to the expedient synthesis of important heterocycles is the subject of this current investigation. The chemoselective reductive cyclization of N-(2-nitrophenyl)pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes accompanied exclusively by an industrial reagent sodium dithionite (Na2S2O4) yielding diversely substituted pyrrole fused N-heterocycles has been developed for the first time. The amino group generated in situ via chemoselective reduction of the nitro group undergoes condensation with the aldehyde group to form quinoxalines, or undergoes reaction with the ester group to form quinoxalones. The protocol features an efficient one-pot, tandem reductive cyclization performed at room temperature, very short reaction time (1 h), no aqueous work up, purification by crystallization, isolated yields generally >90%, appreciable functional group tolerance, and wide substrate scope. The scalability of the developed protocol is further demonstrated by a gram-scale synthesis.
Sodium dithionite (Na2S2O4) is largely used in the textile industry and for the preparation of dyes.5 However, Na2S2O4 has never been employed in the reduction of a nitro group in industry. Despite being a cheap (30$ per kg, ©Thermo Fisher), non-toxic, greener and more sustainable alternative to conventional metal-acid reduction, the use of Na2S2O4 in the reduction of nitro groups remains underexplored and limited to only a few recent reports.6 Na2S2O4 mediated synthesis of benzimidazole via reductive cyclization of ortho-nitroaniline with aldehydes is also reported.7 More importantly, chemoselective reduction of a nitro group especially in the presence of an aldehyde or ester group in the presence of Na2S2O4 remains unexplored, neither the scope of in situ reduction of nitro compounds coupled with a further synthetic transformation to prepare important heterocycles has been demonstrated. The key question is whether a one-pot, tandem chemoselective reductive cyclization could be developed expanding the scope of the use of Na2S2O4 to the preparation of pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalines, 5H-benzo[e]pyrrolo[1,2-a][1,4]diazepines, and pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxaline-4(5H)-ones which are present in natural products and pharmaceuticals showing a broad range of biological activities (Fig. 1).8–11
The synthesis of 4-substituted pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalines invariably uses N-(2-aminophenyl)pyrrole and an electrophilic carbon synthon (Scheme 1a)12–20 with an exception of a few intermolecular reactions involving pyrrole-2-carboxaldehyde and iodoanilines performed in the presence of a copper catalyst and sparteine.21,22 On the other hand, the synthesis of pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalin-4(5H)-one is reported to involve a multi-step synthesis,23 reductive cyclization of N-(2-nitrophenyl)pyrrole-2-carboxylate,24 and intramolecular cyclization of pyrrole-2-carboxamides (Scheme 1b).25 To the best of our knowledge, a direct synthetic strategy for the synthesis of pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxaline and pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalin-4(5H)-one employing sodium dithionite as a green reductant is currently unknown. This prompted us to develop a new tandem chemoselective reductive cyclization process for the synthesis of pyrrole fused N-heterocycles utilizing sodium dithionite as a green reductant. In this strategy, the nitro group in N-(2-nitrophenyl)-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehyde and carboxylate is reduced to aniline (in situ), which undergoes cyclization to form the corresponding desired product. This approach features mild reaction conditions, high atom-economy, quantitative yields, wide substrate scope, and broad functional group tolerance. The products were obtained simply by a successive process including extraction, concentration, precipitation, and crystallization, without tedious column chromatography.
Scheme 1 Literature reported methods for the synthesis of pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalines and pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalin-4(5H)-ones. |
Entry | Reductant (equiv.) | Solvent | Temp./time | Yieldb (%) |
---|---|---|---|---|
n.d. = not detected.a Reaction conditions: 1 (0.2 mmol) and reductant (3–4 equiv.) in EtOH:H2O (1 mL) under open air.b Isolated yield.c Under N2 conditions. | ||||
1 | Na2S2O4 (3) | EtOH | 70 °C/12 h | n.d. |
2 | Na2S2O4 (3) | H2O | 70 °C/12 h | n.d. |
3 | Na2S2O4 (3) | EtOH:H2O (1:1) | 70 °C/12 h | 40 |
4 | Na2S2O4 (3) | EtOH:H2O (2:1) | 70 °C/12 h | 55 |
5 | Na2S2O4 (3) | EtOH:H2O (3:1) | 70 °C/12 h | 82 |
6 | Na2S2O4 (4) | EtOH:H2O (3:1) | 70 °C/12 h | 90 |
7 | Na2S2O4 (4) | EtOH:H2O (3:1) | 70 °C/6 h | 92 |
8 | Na2S2O4 (4) | EtOH:H2O (3:1) | 90 °C/6 h | 85 |
9 | Na2S2O4 (4) | EtOH:H2O (3:1) | 50 °C/6 h | 95 |
10 | Na2S2O4 (4) | EtOH:H2O (3:1) | rt/6 h | 99 |
11 | Na2S2O4 (4) | EtOH:H2O (3:1) | rt/1 h | 99 |
12c | Na2S2O4 (4) | EtOH:H2O (3:1) | rt/1 h | 96 |
To demonstrate the substrate scope, various N-aryl-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes were investigated that could potentially participate in the chemoselective reductive cyclization in the presence of Na2S2O4 (Scheme 2). N-Aryl-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes having an electron donating or withdrawing group present on the benzene ring were found to be compatible affording pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalines (2a–g) in yields >90%. The presence of the methylsulfone substituent on the benzene ring of 1h also gave the desired product 2h in 94% yield. Likewise, alkyl, aryl and halo substitution on the pyrrole ring also worked well delivering compounds 2i–k in 90–94% yields. To demonstrate further substrate scope, N-heteroaryl-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes containing a pyridine ring were investigated in the chemoselective reductive cyclization. Thus, the reaction of N-(3-nitropyridin-2-yl)-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes with sodium dithionite, to our satisfaction, afforded pyrido[3,2-e]pyrrolo[1,2-a]pyrazines (2l and 2m) in 92% and 90% yields, respectively. Similarly, N-heteroaryl-2-carboxaldehydes containing an indole or imidazole ring were also found to be compatible for chemoselective reductive cyclization under the optimized conditions affording 2n and 2o in 98% and 96% yields, respectively.
Besides using N-(aryl/heteroaryl)-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes as substrates, we also explored chemoselective reductive cyclization of N-benzyl-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes (Scheme 3). Unlike N-(aryl/heteroaryl)-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes, N-benzyl-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes gave seven membered cyclized products, pyrrole-fused benzodiazepines.26 Towards this endeavor, when unsubstituted N-benzyl-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehyde 3a was exposed to the optimized reaction conditions, the pyrrolo-fused benzodiazepine 4a was obtained in an isolated yield of 98%. Limited substrate scope was observed under the optimized conditions giving pyrrole fused benzodiazepines 4b–d in 92–96% yields. N-Ts pyrrole-2-carboxaldehyde 3f did not react under the optimized reaction conditions and failed to give the corresponding cyclized product 4f. Perhaps more importantly, chemoselective reduction of a nitro group in the presence of an aldehyde group unveiled for the first time, which upon subsequent cyclization paved the way for the formation of pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalines. Leveraging the practical advantages of the chemistry described herein, the current protocol may be considered as a sustainable alternative to classical methods available for the preparation of this class of compounds.
Subsequent to successful chemoselective nitro reduction in the presence of an aldehyde group, our next effort was directed at realizing a chemoselective nitro reduction in the presence of an ester group, which could further be coupled with amidation reaction involving the in situ generated amine and the ester group. The amidation of an ester with an amine generally requires activation of the ester group.27 However, the reductive amidation of a nitro group has been reported under metal-catalyzed conditions, which also requires in situ activation of the ester group.28 The question remains whether a tandem chemoselective nitro reduction in the presence of an ester group followed by amidation could be achieved possibly without the activation of the ester group. To explore further the scope of our optimized conditions, we investigated the chemoselective reductive cyclization of alkyl N-(2-nitrophenyl)-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylates 5 for the synthesis of pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxaline-4(5H)-ones 6 (Scheme 4). Exposure of methyl 1-(2-nitrophenyl)-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylate 5a to the optimized conditions gave pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxaline-4(5H)-one 6a in 98% yield. Substituted alkyl N-aryl-pyrrole-2-carboxylates also reacted effectively under the optimized conditions furnishing the products 6b–c in excellent yield (92–95%). Notably, similar to alkyl 1-(2-nitrophenyl)-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylates, alkyl N-benzyl-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehydes did not give the desired product 6d; however a nitro-reduced product of 5d was obtained in 90% yield. The attempted reaction of alkyl N-sulfonyl-pyrrole-2-carboxylate 5e to produce 6e in the presence of Na2S2O4 was futile under the optimized reaction conditions. Unlike previous reports available for the synthesis of pyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxaline-4(5H)-one 6 suffering from the limitations of using harsh and toxic chemicals, the protocol described herein to synthesize these compounds avoids the use of any such reagents.
To demonstrate the scalability of the developed protocol, the synthesis of 2a and 6a was carried out over a gram scale (Scheme 5). Moreover, the simple crystallization yielded pure cyclized products in nearly quantitative yields.
Notably, the PMI of these reactions is in the range of 14–16, which is much lower than those of conventional metal-mediated reactions indicating the greener feature of this protocol. Additionally, other quantitative green metrics such as the E-factor and atom economy also comply with green chemistry (see the ESI†).
Next, we sought to understand the mechanism of the tandem chemoselective reductive cyclization. Some control experiments were carried out to understand whether the reaction occurred via a radical pathway. Then, we were interested to know if any radical quenchers (TEMPO and BHT) could play a role in inhibiting the reaction. When the standard reaction was performed in the presence of TEMPO (4 equiv.), the reaction yield significantly reduced to 40% (Scheme 6a). With a higher amount of TEMPO (10 equiv.), only a trace amount of 2a was obtained. Moreover, the reaction was completely halted with BHT (4 equiv.) indicating that a radical pathway is involved (Scheme 6b).
Based on the available literature reports6 and the experimental observation of our reaction, a plausible reaction mechanism is proposed as shown in Scheme 7. Initially, the sulfoxylate radical anion (SO2˙−) generated from the homolytic cleavage of the dithionite anion [S2O42−] reduces the nitro group in 1 to the nitroso intermediate 1a′ by sequential electron transfer. The sulfoxylate radical anion could transfer two more electrons to 1a′ to form a hydroxylamine intermediate 1b′. This intermediate 1b′ then could follow path A or B depending upon whether aldehyde or ester functional groups were present at the C-2 position of pyrrole. In path A, where the aldehyde group is present, the intermediate 1b′ could be reduced to the amine intermediate 1c′ by accepting two electrons from the sulfoxylate anion radical. This amine intermediate 1c′ then undergoes intramolecular nucleophilic addition with the aldehyde group to form intermediate 1d′, which upon aromatization could yield the desired cyclized product 2a. In path B, the intermediate 1b′′ is formed initially as in path A. Following this, the sodium bisulfite (NaHSO3) generated in situ from sodium dithionite and water could activate the ester in 1c′′ by 1,3-chelation. The subsequent intramolecular nucleophilic addition to the activated ester could form the intermediate 1d′′. Finally, the removal of MeOH could give the desired amide 6a.
Footnote |
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Scanned copy of 1H and 13C NMR spectra. See DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d2gc03749a |
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