A methanol (12 mL) solution of palladium (10% activated carbon, 730 mg) and ammonium formate (940 mg, 14.8 mmol, 2 eq.) was added to 5-amino-2-chloro-6-trifluoromethoxypyridine (39,1.6 g, 7.4 mmol) as a feedstock and stirred at 25 °C. The reaction mixture was heated to 55 °C with continuous stirring for 16 hours. Upon completion of the reaction, the catalyst was removed by diafiltration followed by evaporation to remove the solvent. The residue was extracted with ethyl acetate (2 x 20 mL) and water (30 mL) by partitioning. The organic layers were combined, dried over sodium sulfate, and then the solvent was evaporated to afford pure 3-amino-2-trifluoromethoxypyridine (40,1.05 g, 5.9 mmol, 80% yield) as a yellow oil. The product was subjected to 1H NMR (CDCl3,300MHz), 19F NMR (CDCl3,282MHz) and 13C NMR (CDCl3,75MHz) to confirm the structure, and elemental analysis (C6H5F3N2O) was performed to verify the purity.
