Use of Formic Acid as a CO Surrogate for the Reduction of Nitroarenes in the Presence of Dienes: A Two-Step Synthesis of N-Arylpyrroles via 1,2-Oxazines

Formic acid, activated by acetic anhydride and a base, was employed as a CO surrogate to deoxygenate nitroarenes to nitrosoarenes, a reaction catalyzed by a palladium/phenanthroline complex in the homogeneous phase. Nitrosoarenes were trapped by conjugated dienes to give 3,6-dihydro-2H-[1,2]-oxazines. The latter were then transformed into N-arylpyrroles employing CuCl as the catalyst. The reaction was designed to give the best results for pyrroles lacking any substituent in the 2 and 5 positions, which are difficult to produce employing most pyrrole syntheses.     

Dispersing behavior of recycled rubber particles

The hydrophobic nature of recycled rubber particles presently limits their use only in non-aqueous media. Recycled rubber particles were chemically modified by preparation of amphiphilic semi-interpenetrating polymer networks using poly(acrylic acid) as the hydrophilic polymer. The resulting composite particles are water dispersible and suitable for various aqueous media applications.