Synthesis of reference substances for highly polar metabolites of nitroaromatic compounds

Transformation processes of nitroaromatic compounds (NAC) lead to polar and highly hydrophilic metabolites. For the unequivocal identification of proposed metabolites reference substances are needed. Since most of them are not commercially available, their synthesis was done in our group. In many cases no satisfying synthesis schemes were found in the literature. In this communication, we therefore describe the preparation, structural elucidation and separation of 17 compounds. Many of the newly synthesized analytes were found in various water samples from a former ammunition plant.