Synthesis of halosulfuron‐methyl via selective chlorination at 3‐ and/or 5‐position of pyrazole‐4‐carboxylates

Reactions of methyl pyrazole-4-carboxylates 4b-d with N-chlorosuccinimide under heating conditions without a solvent gave methyl 3,5-dichloro-1-methylpyrazole-4-carboxylate 4a in good yields. The reaction of 4a with sodium hydrosulfide led to a nucleophilic substitution on the 5-position regioselectively to afford methyl 3-chloro-1-methyl-5-mercaptopyrazole-4-carboxylate 6a, which was followed by oxidative chlorination and amination to obtain 3-chloro-1-methyl-5-sulfamoylpyrazole-4-carboxylate 2a. Finally, the reaction of 2a with phenyl 4,6-dimethoxypyrimidin-2-yl carbamate 7 provided methyl 3-chloro-5-(4,6-dimethoxypyrimidin-2-ylcarbamoylsulfamoyl)-1-methylpyrazole-4-carboxylate (halosulfuron-methyl) 1a promising herbicide in com.