2-(5-nitro-pyridin-2-yl)-malonic acid diethyl ester could be used as a starting material to synthesize 2-methyl-5-nitropyridine. The specific operations are as follows: To 2-(5-nitro-pyridin-2-yl)-malonic acid diethyl ester (12.0 g, 42.5 mmol) was added cold aq. 20% sulfuric acid (120 mL) and the mixture was heated to 100 ℃ for 2h. The cooled reaction was added to a cold dilute sodium hydroxide solution and the pH adjusted to 10. The organics were extracted with dichloromethane (x 4), and then the combined organic phases were dried over sodium sulfate. The filtrate was concentrated to afford 2-methyl-5-nitropyridine (5.0 g, 83 %) as a brown solid.
