The reduction of nitro compounds are chemical reactions of wide interest in organic chemistry.
Alkyl and aryl nitro compounds behave differently.
(See below) Several methods have been described for the production of aryl hydroxylamines from aryl nitro compounds: Treatment of nitroarenes with excess zinc metal results in the formation of N,N'-diarylhydrazine.
Hydrodenitration (replacement of a nitro group with hydrogen) is difficult to achieve but can be effected by catalytic hydrogenation over platinum on silica gel at high temperatures.
[30] The reaction can also be carried out with zinc dust and ammonium chloride:[31][32][33]