In summary, we have demonstrated a facile procedure for the Zn/HCl promoted cleavage of
picolinic amides. The mild conditions and broad functional group tolerance suggest that this
reaction should be useful in complex molecule synthesis and related synthetic applications.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Prof. Dr. Nuno Maulide (University of Vienna, Austria) for his kind
support of this research and insightful discussions. We acknowledge the Max-Planck-Institut
für Kohlenforschung (Mülheim, Germany) where preliminary studies were carried out. The
authors also acknowledge the support of the AstraZeneca oncology iMED in Cambridge
(UK), the University of Cambridge Department of Chemistry and the Herchel Smith Fund for
providing a postdoctoral research fellowship to Dr. Claudia De Fusco.
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chromatography.