General procedure for the synthesis of 2-methylnaphtho[2,1-D]oxazoles from 2-nitro-1-naphthol and potassium thioacetate: A surfactant-mediated solvent-free scheme was used, which can also be applied to the conversion of aryl nitro compounds to aryl acetamides. This is achieved by reacting a mixture of aryl nitro compounds (1 eq.) with potassium thioacetate (4 eq.) in the presence of dry Triton-X 405 (as catalyst) at ca. 130 °C for ca. 3 hours in a solvent-free acetamidation reaction. The reaction produces the corresponding aryl acetamides with higher than 95% conversion (by HPLC and GC analysis) and selectivity. Representative results for the acetamidation of aryl nitro compounds have been summarized in Table 2. The generalized reaction formula for the acetamidation of aryl nitro compounds is shown below.
