Methyl 4-chloropicolinate

Brown Solid

Methyl 4-Chloropicolinate (cas# 24484-93-3) is a compound useful in organic synthesis.

The starting material 2-picolinic acid was treated with SOCl2 to generate 4-chloropicolinoyl chloride, and then esterification with MeOH resulted in the formation of methyl 4-chloropicolinate.

Synthetic Communications, 26, p. 2017, 1996 DOI: 10.1080/00397919608003557

To a suspension of 4-chloropyridine-2-carboxylic acid (4.5 g, 29.0 mmol) in methylene chloride (120 mL) was added oxalyl chloride (3.0 mL, 1.2 eq) under Ar2. The reaction was cooled to 0° C., and 500 uL of DMF was added. A large amount of gas was generated in situ. The reaction was stirred at room temperature for 1.5 h and then concentrated. Dry MeOH (50 mL) was added to the crude acyl chloride residue. The reaction was stirred at room temperature for 0.5 h, then quenched with NaHCO3 (5%) to neutral, extracted with EtOAc, and washed with brine. The combined organics were dried over MgSO4, filtered, and concentrated in vacuo to give 5.0 g of a crude solid, which was triturated with 5% EtOAc/hexane to give Methyl 4-chloropicolinate as a light yellow solid (4.5 g, 90%).