Kilogram-Scale Preparation of an Aminopyrazole Building Block via Copper-Catalyzed Aryl Amidation

Abstract

We describe a scalable method for preparing an aminopyrazole building block using copper-catalyzed amidation with acetamide as an ammonia surrogate. This procedure provides an alternative to the standard nitration/reduction sequence and avoids energetic intermediates, specialized hydrogenation equipment, and potentially genotoxic impurities that arise from nitro reduction. The chemistry has been successfully scaled to produce >50 kg of the target compound and demonstrate the viability of this alternative route.