Carboxylic esters, acetoacetic acidity

By the ketonic hydrolysis of substituted acetoacetic esters this is brought about by the action of dilute alkali in the cold, followed by acidification and boiling. The free substituted acetoacetic acid is produced, which readily undergoes decarboxylation (since it has a carboxyl and a carbonyl group on the same carbon atom) to give a ketone, for example ... 

One route to o-nitrobenzyl ketones is by acylation of carbon nucleophiles by o-nitrophenylacetyl chloride. This reaction has been applied to such nucleophiles as diethyl malonatc[l], methyl acetoacetate[2], Meldrum s acid[3] and enamines[4]. The procedure given below for ethyl indole-2-acetate is a good example of this methodology. Acylation of u-nitrobenzyl anions, as illustrated by the reaction with diethyl oxalate in the classic Reissert procedure for preparing indolc-2-carboxylate esters[5], is another route to o-nitrobenzyl ketones. The o-nitrophenyl enamines generated in the first step of the Leimgruber-Batcho synthesis (see Section 2.1) are also potential substrates for C-acylation[6,7], Deformylation and reduction leads to 2-sub-stituted indoles. 

It is obvious that many carboxylic acids of the formulas RCH2COOH and RR CHCOOH can be synthesized by this method (for some other ways of preparing such acids, see 10-106, 10-108, and 10-109). Another important example is the acetoacetic ester synthesis, in which Z is COOEt and Z is COCH3. In this case the product can be decarboxylated with acid or dilute base (12-38) to give a ketone or cleaved with concentrated base (12-41) to give a carboxylic ester and a salt of acetic acid ... 

The alkylation of activated halogen compounds is one of several reactions of trialkylboranes developed by Brown (see also 15-16,15-25,18-31-18-40, etc.). These compounds are extremely versatile and can be used for the preparation of many types of compounds. In this reaction, for example, an alkene (through the BR3 prepared from it) can be coupled to a ketone, a nitrile, a carboxylic ester, or a sulfonyl derivative. Note that this is still another indirect way to alkylate a ketone (see 10-105) or a carboxylic acid (see 10-106), and provides an additional alternative to the malonic ester and acetoacetic ester syntheses (10-104). 

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. 

Plant. In plants, mevinphos is hydrolyzed to phosphoric acid dimethyl ester, phosphoric acid, and other less toxic compounds (Hartley and Kidd, 1987). In one day, the compound is almost completely degraded in plants (Cremlyn, 1991). Casida et al. (1956) proposed two degradative pathways of mevinphos in bean plants and cabbage. In the first degradative pathway, cleavage of the vinyl phosphate bond affords methylacetoacetate and acetoacetic acid, which may be precursors to the formation of the end products dimethyl phosphoric acid, methanol, acetone, and carbon dioxide. In the other degradative pathway, direct hydrolysis of the carboxylic ester would yield vinyl phosphates as intermediates. The half-life of mevinphos in bean plants was 0.5 d (Casida et ah, 1956). In alfalfa, the half-life was 17 h (Huddelston and Gyrisco, 1961). 

Examples of this approach to the synthesis of ketones and carboxylic acids are presented in Scheme 1.6. In these procedures, an ester group is removed by hydrolysis and decarboxylation after the alkylation step. The malonate and acetoacetate carbanions are the synthetic equivalents of the simpler carbanions lacking the ester substituents. In the preparation of 2-heptanone (entries 1, Schemes 1.5 and 1.6), for example, ethyl acetoacetate functions as the synthetic equivalent of acetone. It is also possible to use the dilithium derivative of acetoacetic acid as the synthetic equivalent of acetone enolate.29 In this case, the hydrolysis step is unnecessary, and decarboxylation can be done directly on the alkylation product. 

Keywords ethyl acetoacetate, o-phenylendianiine, acid cleavage, decarboxylation, carboxylic ester... 

The hydrogen atoms on the methylene unit between the two carboxyl groups are acidic like those in acetoacetic ester. Strong bases can remove these acidic hydrogens. 

Use a malonic ester synthesis if the product you want is an a-substituted carboxylic acid derivative. Use an acetoacetic acid synthesis if the product you want is an a-substituted methyl ketone. 

When treated with concentrated alkali, acetoacetic ester is converted into two moles of sodium acetate, (a) Outline all steps in a likely mechanism for this reaction. (Hint See Sec. 21.11 and Problem 5.8, p. 170.) (b) Substituted acetoacetic esters also undergo this reaction. Outline the steps in a general synthetic route from acetoacetic ester to carboxylic acids, (c) Outline the steps in the synthesis of 2-hexanone via acetoacetic ester. What acids will be formed as by-products Outline a procedure for purification of the desired ketone. (Remember that the alkylation is carried out in alcohol that NaBr is formed that aqueous base is used for hydrolysis and that ethyl alcohol is a product of the hydrolysis.)... 

Acetoacetic ester s. a. / -Keto-carboxylic acid esters Acetoacetic esters... 

Groups bonded to C-2 of either acetoacetic acids or malortic adds, or to C-4 of acetoacetic acids, do not participate in the mechanism of the reaction. Both types of compounds are produced in condensation reactions of the related esters (Chapter 21). Hydrolysis of these esters yields carboxylic adds that are then heated to decarboxylate them. 

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