Description Phenyl-2-nitropropene CAS # 705-60-2 is a chemical compound with the chemical formula is C9H9NO2. It can be produced by the reaction of benzaldehyde and nitroethane in the presence of a basic catalyst. In this reaction, the base deprotonates nitroethane to form a resonance stabilized anion. This anion nucleophilically adds to the aldehyde forming a beta nitro alcohol, which is subsequently dehydrated to yield the nitroalkene. This reaction is known as a nitroaldol reaction. Phenyl-2-nitropropene can be reduced in the presence of a catalyst to produce phenylacetone, which is a controlled precursor of methamphetamine. However, with lithium aluminium hydride it can simply be reduced to directly form amphetamine and methamphetamine in high yields.
