Halides, alkyl reaction with acetoacetic ester anions

In both the acetoacetic ester synthesis and the malonic ester synthesis, it is possible to add two different alkyl groups to the a-carbon in sequential steps. First the enolate ion is generated by reaction with sodium ethoxide and alkylated. Then the enolate ion of the alkylated product is generated by reaction with a second equivalent of sodium ethoxide, and that anion is alkylated with another alkyl halide. An example is provided by the following equation ... 

Looking back on the history of ketone dianion chemistry, one soon notices that dianion species, derived from / -keto esters, have been in continuous steady use in organic synthesis3,4, as shown in Scheme 2. Thus, ethyl acetoacetate can be converted to the corresponding ketone o a -chainon via consecutive proton abstraction reactions. The resulting dienolate anion reacts with a variety of alkyl halides to give products, resulting from exclusive attack at the terminal enolate anions. 

In the presence of sodamide the anionic form of 2-amino-l-ethylbenzimidazole is substituted by alkyl halides on both the annular and exocyclic nitrogens. With butyl and isopropyl iodides the proportion of dialkylated product is increased. The synthetic utility of such nucleophilic reactions of 2-aminobenzimidazole is exemplified by reactions with ethyl cyanoacetate, acetoacetic ester and ethyl benzoylacetate, when subsequent cyclization of the initial products also gives pyrimidobenzimidazole derivatives (Scheme 117). 

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