DFT Study on Two Plausible Mechanistic Routes to Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine-4-Amines from Pyrazoloformimidate

Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine-4-amine was prepared at room temperature in a catalyst- free medium with moderate yield and characterized by spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction techniques. Two possible mechanistic routes were suggested for its formation. Route 1 entails attack by the N of the amine on the imidate carbon followed by Dimroth rearrangement after cyclization. Route 2 is the nucleophilic attack by the amine on the CN function followed by cyclization to pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine-4-amine. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation studies of the two proposed reaction pathways illustrated that the Route 2 reaction was more likely than that of Route 1.