Magnesium/hydrazinium monoformate: A new hydrogenation system for the selective reduction of nitro compounds

The nitro group in aliphatic and aromatic nitro compounds, which also contain reducible substituents such as alkenes, nitriles, carboxylic acids, phenols, halogens, esters, etc., is selectively and rapidly reduced at room temperature to the corresponding amine in good yield by employing hydrazinium monoformate in the presence of magnesium powder. It was observed that, hydrazinium monoformate is more effective than hydrazine or formic acid or ammonium formate and reduction of the nitro group occurs without hydrogenolysis in the presence of low-cost magnesium compared to expensive metals like palladium, platinum, ruthenium, etc