Cyano acetic acid ethyl ester, reaction with

This route is especially convenient because no over-alkylation of the anion of acetonitrile occurs. Over-alkylation can be a problem in attempts to methylate the anion of diethyl cyano-methylphosphonate (4) directly a mixture of unalkylated, monoalkylated and dialkylated products in a ratio of 1 2 1 is formed. The same problem arises with the alkylation of triethyl phosphonoacetate (11). For the preparation of a Ca-ester synthon, an alternative method to the propionitrile route is used (Scheme 7). This method has been used in the synthesis of labelled Cio-central units, described in the next Section. The starting material is acetic acid (9) which is converted into ethyl bromoacetate (10) as described above (Scheme 3). The ethyl bromoacetate (10) is reacted with triphenyl phosphine in a nucleophilic substitution reaction the phosphonium salt is formed (yield 97%). The phosphonium salt is deprotonated in a two-layer system of dichloromethane and an aqueous solution of NaOH. After isolation, the phosphorane 22 is reacted at room temperature with one equivalent of methyl iodide (19) the product consists mainly of the monomethylated phosphonium salt (>90%) which is deprotonated with NaOH, to give the phosphorane 23 in quantitative yield relative to phosphorane 22, and 23 is reacted with the aldehyde in dichloromethane. The ester product 12 can subsequently be reduced to the corresponding alcohol and reoxidized to the aldehyde 8. An alternative two-step sequence for this has also been used. First, the ester 12 is converted into the A -methyl-iV-methoxyamide (16) quantitatively by allowing it to react with the anion of A, 0-dimethylhydroxylamine as described above (Scheme 5). This amide 16 is converted, in one step, into the aldehyde 8 by reacting it with DIB AH in THF at -40°C [46]. 

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