Vanadium‐catalyzed Hydration of 2‐Cyanopyrazine to Pyrazinamide with Unique Substrate Specificity

Abstract

AbstractPyrazinamide is an important medicine used for the treatment of tuberculosis(TB). The preparation of pyrazinamide via catalytic hydration of 2‐cyanopyrazine is of great economic interest with high atomic economy. Heterogeneous non‐precious transition metal‐catalyzed hydration of nitriles under neutral reaction conditions would be rather attractive. Herein vanadium‐nitrogen‐carbon materials were fabricated and employed for selective hydration of nitriles using water as both the solvent and reactant. 2‐Cyanopyrazine could be smoothly converted into to pyrazinamide with unique substrate specificity. Additives with different N and O atoms could significantly affect hydration of 2‐cyanopyrazine due to competitive adsorption/coordination in the reaction system. This work provides a new approach for non‐precious metal catalyzed hydration of nitriles.