Acetoacetic acid, ethyl ester, condensation

Reactions using highly acidic active methylene compounds (pAa = 9-13) comprise nearly all the early examples of imine condensation reactions, some of which date back to the turn of the century. Reviews by Layer and Harada have summarized many of these reactions and include examples using diethyl malonate, ethyl cyanoacetate, ethyl malonamide, acetoacetic acid, benzoylacetic esters and nitroalkanes. Conditions of these reactions vary they have been performed both in protic and aptotic solvents, neat, and with and without catalysts. Elevated temperatures are generally required. Reactions with malonates have useful applications for the synthesis of 3-amino acids. For example, hydrobenzamide (87), a trimeric form of the benzaldehyde-ammonia Schiff base, and malonic acid condense with concomitant decarboxylation to produce p-phenylalanine (88) in high yield (equation 14). This is one of the few examples of a Mannich reaction in which a primary Mannich base is produced in a direct manner but is apparently limited to aromatic imines. 

The formation of acyloins (a-hydroxyketones of the general formula RCH(OH)COR, where R is an aliphatic residue) proceeds best by reaction between finely-divided sodium (2 atoms) and esters of aliphatic acids (1 mol) in anhydrous ether or in anhydrous benzene with exclusion of oxygen salts of enediols are produced, which are converted by hydrolysis into acyloins. The yield of acetoin from ethyl acetate is low (ca. 23 per cent, in ether) owing to the accompanying acetoacetic ester condensation the latter reaction is favoured when the ester is used as the solvent. Ethyl propionate and ethyl ji-butyrate give yields of 52 per cent, of propionoin and 72 per cent, of butyroin respectively in ether. 

Esters, like aldehydes and ketones, are weakly acidic. When an ester with an a- hydrogen is treated with 1 equivalent of a base such as sodium ethoxide, a reversible carbonyl condensation reaction occurs to yield a /3-keto ester. For example, ethyl acetate yields ethyl acetoacetate on base treatment. This reaction between two ester molecules is known as the Claisen condensation reaction. (We ll use ethyl esters, abbreviated "Et," for consistency, but other esters will also work.)... 

On heating the parent acid of ester VI (from condensation of D-glucose with diethyl 3-oxoglutarate) in aqueous solution,11 following the procedure employed to obtain the corresponding derivative of ethyl acetoacetate XXVI, a sirup results. However, its change in optical activity shows a parallelism with that in analogous cases where crystalline products are isolated, and apparently indicates anhydride formation (see the last line in Table V). 

Concentrated alkali hydroxide decomposes the acetoacetic acid produced by hydrolysis of the ester in a different manner. The cleavage does not take place between the carboxyl group and the rest of the molecule, but between the latter and the —CO.CH3-group, so that two molecules of acetic acid are produced. This acidic hydrolysis introduces a new variation into the synthesis as a whole. The practical importance of this acid hydrolysis may be illustrated by the same example, the condensation product of ethyl acetoacetate with ethyl chloroacetate. 

Isodehydroacetic acid has been prepared by the action of sulfuric acid on acetoacetic ester 3 4 The ethyl ester has been prepared by the action of dry hydrogen chloride on acetoacetic ester 6 6 and by the sodium-catalyzed condensation of ethyl /3-chloroisocrotonate with ethyl acetoacetate3 The methyl ester of isodehydroacetic acid has been prepared by the thermal rearrangement of pyrazolines 7... 

The enolate anion attacks the carbonyl carbon of a second molecule of ester and gives a P-ketoester. Thus, the Claisen condensation is a nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction. Eor example, two molecules of ethyl acetate condense together to form the enolate of ethyl acetoacetate, which upon addition of an acid produces ethyl acetoacetate (P-ketoester). 

The self-condensation of /3-keto esters and related compounds occurs under the influence of either acidic or basic catalysts and constitutes one of the earliest syntheses of pyran-2-ones (l883LA(222)l). It exemplifies a synthesis of type (ii) (Scheme 85). Ethyl acetoacetate, for instance, gives a mixture of 4,6-dimethyl-2-oxopyran-5-carboxylic acid and its ethyl ester other esters behave similarly (59RTC364). Decarboxylation of the pyrancarboxylic acid occurs at 160 °C in sulfuric acid. The formation of the pyranone proceeds through a 5-keto ester which is considered to result from attack of the enolic form of the ester on protonated ethyl acetoacetate (51JA3531). A detailed synthesis of the pyran-5-carboxylic acid is available <630SC(4)549). 

Reaction XLIV. (b) Condensation of Alkyl and Aryl Halogen Compounds with the Sodio- and other Metallo-derivatives of Ethyl Aceto-acetate and its Homolognes. (A., 186, 214 201, 143 213, 143.)—Like malonic ester, acetoacetic ester contains two 1 3-carbonyl groups with a methylene group in position 2. It is only to be expected then that it yields with metallic sodium or sodium alcoholate sodio-derivatives from which mono- and di-, alkyl and aryl homologues can be obtained by treatment with a suitable halide, including halogen esters. Acetoacetic acid... 

Ethyl acetoacetate is the ester of a p-keto acid its preparation illustrates the reaction known as the Claisen condensation. 

This reaction was first reported by Geuther in 1863 and subsequently studied by Claisen. It is a self-condensation of ester in the presence of alkali alkoxide in alcohol to form /3-keto esters (e.g. ethyl acetoacetate from ethyl acetate) and is generally known as acetoacetic ester condensation. This reaction was extensively explored by McElvain in 1930s. In general, it is carried out under basic conditions (e.g., NaOEt) to generate /3-keto-esters from aliphatic carboxylic acid esters. 

The so-called Michael condensation involves the additive condensation of aj8-unsaturated acids, their esters, or aj3-unsaturated ketones with the sodium derivative of ethyl malonate, acetoacetate, or cyanoacetate. To explain this and other addition reactions Michael published many papers setting out a negative-positive rule and a distribution principle . The first assumed, for example, that in propylene, CHa CHrCHg, the positive radical CH3 makes the adjacent carbon in CH more positive than that in CHg, so that hydrogen iodide H+I adds mainly to form CHg-CHI-CHg, but I+C1 adds to form mostly CHa CHChCHgl. With BrCl, in which both atoms are nearly equally positive, about equal amounts of CHs-CHCl-CHaBr and CHg-CHBr-CHgCl are formed. In longer chains there are spatial influences. 

Scheme 14.22. Utilization of condensation chemistry of ethyl acetoacetate (ethyl 3-oxopropanoate) with ethyl iodide and the t-butyl ester of acetoacetic acid to produce yet another pyrrole derivative 3-ethyl-2,4-dimethylpyrrole.

Scheme 14.22 utilizes ethyl iodide (iodoethane) and the t-butyl ester of acetoacetic acid (t-butyl 3-oxobutanoate) in a similar set of condensation reactions. Here, however, the t-butyl ester is not hydrolyzed under basic conditions, and... 

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