A 1-L 3-neck round bottom flask was equipped with an overhead mechanical stirrer, an internal temperature thermometer, and a dropping funnel. The flask was charged with methanesulfonic acid (250 mL) and warmed with stirring to an internal temperature of 125 °C. 2-Bromoaniline (80.55 g, 0.468 mol) was added portion-wise, followed by meta-nitrobenzenesulfonic acid sodium salt (66.30 g, 0.293 mol) and FeSO4.7H2O (3.90 g, 14 mmol). The addition funnel was charged with glycerol (28.3 mL, 0.39 mol) and the glycerol was added dropwise over 15 min. Two additional portions of glycerol (2 x 28.3 mL, 0.78 mol) were added at three-hour intervals. After the last portion of glycerol was added the brown solution was maintained at 125 °C for 12 hours. The reaction mixture was allowed to cool to RT and water (250 mL) was added. The resulting brown-black solution was transferred to a 4-L beaker with the aid of 100 mL water. The beaker was placed in an ice bath and an aqueous NaOH solution (50% m/v) was added with stirring until the solution was basified to ~ pH 14. The heterogeneous mixture was extracted with Et2O (3 x 500 mL), allowing the emulsion to settle for ~10 min each time. The combined organic extracts were washed with brine (1 x 400 mL), dried over Na2SO4 and filtered through Celite. Concentration of the resulting solution to a viscous brown oil provided the title compound (86.55 g, 0.426 mol, 89%) in ~95% purity as judged by 1H NMR. The crude product was then purified by kugelrohr distillation (0.14 mm Hg; pot temp, 180–205 °C) to give a yellow oil that solidified on standing (83.69 g, 0.402 mol, 86%)
1H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3): 8.98 (dd, J = 4.2, 1.8, 1H), 8.08 (dd, J = 8.3, 1.7, 1H), 7.98 (dd, J = 7.4, 1.4, 1H), 7.72 (dd, J = 8.1, 1.2, 1H), 7.39 (dd, J = 8.1, 4.2, 1H), 7.32 (t, J = 8.0, 1H); 13C NMR (75 MHz, CDCl3): 151.1, 145.0, 136.5, 133.0, 129.4, 127.7, 126.8, 124.5, 121.8.
This material identical to 8-bromoquinoline prepared by other methods.
