Determination of Masked Basicity in Imidazo[1,5-a]pyridine Carboxylic Acids Using Esters

Imidazo[1,5-a]pyridine carboxylic acids are useful building blocks for medical chemistry, but their synthesis scale-up and isolation depend strongly on pH. For zwitterion-prone representatives, a direct titration of acids does not always reveal the basicity of the heteroaromatic center, which is critical for their further use. Therefore, a series of acids, their corresponding esters, and hydrochlorides were analyzed by the potentiometric titration together with 1H/13C NMR, HPLC, LCMS, and HRMS. The acids showed apparent pKa values of 5.13-6.11, while the esters exposed the basic-center pKa values in the range of 2.75-4.64. NMR data indicate close electronic similarity within the acid/ester pairs, supporting the use of esters as models for acids with masked basicity.