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Co(II) Acetate?Assisted Direct Synthesis of Acyl Hydrazones from Acyl Hydrazides under Mild Conditions

An atom?economic and efficient method to prepare multi?dynamic acyl (aryl and heteroaryl) hydrazones from acyl hydrazides has been achieved by using mild base K2CO3 and commercially available Co(OAc)2.4H2O salt as catalyst under mild reaction conditions with methanol as solvent. Additionally, the E/Z photoswitching behavior of some of the new acyl hydrazones has been witnessed by UV?vis spectroscopy.Acyl hydrazones are a class of synthetically important organic compounds that are recurrently in high demand for synthesis and use in various fields of chemistry and biology. We report the first Co(II) catalyzed one?component one?pot sustainable synthesis of acyl hydrazones only from acyl hydrazides under mild reaction conditions. Traditional and contemporary methodologies use two components (usually acyl hydrazides and aldehydes/ketones/alcohols/styrene) as the coupling partners. Our protocol, on the other hand, involves the in?situ generation of aldehyde intermediate (detected by gas chromatography) from the acyl hydrazide, which then undergoes condensation with another molecule of the same acyl hydrazide in the same pot to yield acyl hydrazones in presence of mild base K2CO3 and low?cost Co(OAc)2???4H2O as catalyst. This method shows good functional group tolerance with good to excellent yield of products. Furthermore, some of the resulting acyl hydrazones have been used as synthetic precursors and explored in various post?synthetic modifications to afford N?heterocyclic compounds. Furthermore, photoswitchable properties of few synthesized acyl hydrazones are also explored using their E/Z isomerization around the C=N bond, as realized by high?pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and UV?vis spectroscopic studies.

Publication date: 24/10/2023

CHEMISTRY - AN ASIAN JOURNAL

      

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870292.