Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Is LiH a strong enough base to deprotonate indole

Monoamine - 2-8-2023 at 07:58

So I want to protect the indole nitrogen for a reaction, but all I have is LiH and elemental Na (which seems a bit crude...). Assuming it would work, i would then be able to protected the indole nitrogen using something like acedtic anhydride or BOK, etc...

Dr.Bob - 2-8-2023 at 09:24

Yes, it should deprotonate the indole N-H. Almost anything will work for that. I think many indoles can use K2CO3 for installing a Boc or acetyl group. In DMF or acetone maybe.

zed - 6-9-2023 at 17:31

Acetic Anhydride might not be a good choice to protect Indolic Nitrogen. In general, it is not wildly reactive.
The Hydrogen-Nitrogen bond is however vulnerable to reacting directly with ketene.

Ketene is quite dangerous, but it is easily generated from acetone.

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/1d/e0/c9/8fae8b1...

[Edited on 7-9-2023 by zed]