Process Research on the Synthesis of Silthiofam:  A Novel Fungicide for Wheat

The development of an efficient, low-cost synthesis of the novel wheat fungicide silthiofam (1) is described. Improvements to the original Discovery route allowed 300 kg of material to be prepared in two, overlapping pilot-plant campaigns. Thereafter, efforts were focused on further optimizing the pilot-plant route, and on devising alternate, lower cost routes to silthiofam. One potential new route involved a cycloaddition reaction between 3-mercapto-2-butanone and N-(2-propenyl)-3-trimethylsilylpropynamide. The cyclic product could be directly dehydrated to silthiofam, however the overall yield was modest, raw material costs were high, and there were purification problems. The route ultimately selected for development proceeds in 6 chemical steps and about 60% yield from the inexpensive precursors 3-chloro-2-butanone and methyl 3-methoxyacrylate. Key features of the route are a novel thiophene-3-carboxylate synthesis involving cycloaddition of 3-mercapto-2-butanone with the acrylate followed by acid cata...