Dimethyl sulfate, reaction with lactams

The preparation of fulvene enamines by the reaction of sodium cyclopent-adienide with dimethyl sulfate complexes of amides or lactams has recently been reported by several investigators [77, 78] (Eq. 22). 

Khydroxypyrazine (which was converted into its jV -dimethyl derivative by treatment with dimethyl sulfate and alkali) gave, on reaction with an excess of ethereal diazomethane a mixture of its N,N-, 0,N-, and 0,0-dimethyl derivatives (58-60) (832). 2-Hydroxy-5-methoxy- and 2,5-dihydroxy-3,6-diphenylpyrazine with ethereal diazomethane gave predominantly 2,5-dimethoxy-3,6-diphenyl-pyrazine and only minor amounts of A -methylated products (832). Methylation of 2-hydroxy-6-methoxypyrazine with ethereal diazomethane produced a mixture of 0- and A -methyl derivatives in which the 0-methyl derivative predominated but the corresponding reaction of 2-benzyloxy-6-hydroxypyrazine gave almost exclusively the 0-methyl derivative (832) [the results of these methylations were correlated with the carbonyl stretching frequency (1103) in the parent lactam (832)]. 

Like many chiral pharmaceuticals, Ritalin, widely used to treat attention deficit disorder, is synthesized and marketed as a racemic mixture. In 2003, a new and potentially practical synthetic route to the active enantiomer (see structure helow) was described. The first step is shown below, the reaction of dimethyl sulfate with a six-membered ring lactam. Propose a mechanism for this reaction. 

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