Ethyl cyanoacetate Knoevenagel reaction

The formation of ethyl isopropylidene cyanoacetate is an example of the Knoevenagel reaction (see Discussion before Section IV,123). With higher ketones a mixture of ammonium acetate and acetic acid is an effective catalyst the water formed is removed by azeotropic distillation with benzene. The essential step in the reaction with aqueous potassium cyanide is the addition of the cyanide ion to the p-end of the ap-double bond ... 

An early application of this reaction to the preparation of barbiturates starts by the condensation of the ketone, I21, with ethyl cyanoacetate by Knoevenagel condensation. Alkylation of the product (122) with ethyl bromide by means of sodium ethoxide affords 123. Condensation of this intermediate with guanidine in the presence of sodium ethoxide gives the diimino analog of a barbiturate (124). Hydrolysis affords vinbarbital (111). > ... 

The rate of the Knoevenagel reaction of acetophenone 30 with ethyl cyanoacetate 31 (Scheme 4.16) was observed to be considerably slower and it was therefore found to be more suitable for rate studies [19]. 

Scheme 4.16 Knoevenagel reaction of acetophenone with ethyl cyanoacetate.

Because a base-catalyzed reaction involves the abstraction of a proton by the catalyst, one approach to measurement of the total number of basic sites and also the base strength distribution is to use the reactions of molecules with various values (96-100). For instance, the basic site distribution in calcined MgAl hy-drotalcites was determined by Corma et al. (99), who used the Knoevenagel condensation (Scheme 7) between benzaldehyde and methylene active compounds with various pKa values, i.e., ethyl cyanoacetate (pKa = 9), diethyl malonate (pKa = 13.3), and ethyl bromoacetate (pKa = 16.5). The authors found that this material has basic sites with pKa values up to 16.5, although most of the basic sites... 

Mettler and colleagues reported an alternative synthesis of malonate 16 in the same paper (Griffiths et al., 1991) in which they condensed cyclohexanone with ethyl cyano-acetate instead of diethyl malonate in the Knoevenagel reaction to give ethyl cyano(cyclohexylidene)-acetate (18). In the presence of a catalytic amount of sodium cyanide, the Michael addition of HCN to cyanoacetate 18 proceeded in good yield at room temperature to generate the dicyanoester 19. Intermediate 19 was selectively converted to malonate 16 with pressurized HCI treatment in ethanol (Scheme 16.4). 

Preliminary data on the reactivity of these materials in a typical Knoevenagel reaction (cyclohexanone and ethyl cyanoacetate) indicates a general trend towards higher activity with increasing water content in the material preparation system. This is complicated by some irregularities in the data from the samples prepared from solvents with roughly comparable water ethanol volume ratios. While many systems have been described where the catalytic activity correlates with changes in textural properties[9], the trends in activity found in this study correlate best with an increase in framework mesopore diameter, and do not follow the... 

Knoevenagel reaction of ketones with ethyl cyanoacetate... 

Ethyl cyanoacetate in the presence of piperidine may also be used as the carbanionic component in reactions with salicylaldehyde. The initial Knoevenagel condensation is followed by a [l,7]-sigmatropic shift and cyclization to the 2-iminochromene derivative which adds another cyanoacetate molecule (67AP1). 

The synthesis of 2,2-dimethylsuccinic acid (Expt 5.135) provides a further variant of the synthetic utility of the Knoevenagel-Michael reaction sequence. Ketones (e.g. acetone) do not readily undergo Knoevenagel reactions with malonic esters, but will condense readily in the presence of secondary amines with the more reactive ethyl cyanoacetate to give an a, /f-unsaturated cyanoester (e.g. 15). When treated with ethanolic potassium cyanide the cyanoester (15) undergoes addition of cyanide ion in the Michael manner to give a dicyanoester (16) which on hydrolysis and decarboxylation affords 2,2-dimethylsuccinic acid. 

CsX is useful for the simple Knoevenagel reaction of benzaldehyde with ethyl cyanoacetate even a simple NaY is sufficiently basic to form carbamates starting from primary aromatic amines and dialkyl carbonates (35, 36). At contrast CsjO-MCM-41 can also be used for the addition of C02 to epoxides, or for Michael addition of one or two molecules of diethyl malonate on neopentylglycol diacrylate (37, 38) ... 

The first reaction is easier not only because it is a Knoevenagel reaction and not a Michael process, but also because the C-H bond in ethyl cyanoacetate is considerably more acidic than in diethyl malonate. It should be noted that there are few, if any, examples of shape-selectivity with such base catalysts. 

In contrast with the widespread application of zeolites as solid acid catalysts (see earlier), their use as solid base catalysts received scant attention until fairly recently [121]. This is probably because acid-catalyzed processes are much more common in the oil refining and petrochemical industries. Nonetheless, basic zeolites and related mesoporous molecular sieves can catalyze a variety of reactions, such as Knoevenagel condensations and Michael additions, which are key steps in the manufacture of flavors and fragrances, pharmaceuticals and other specialty chemicals [121]. Indeed, the Knoevenagel reaction of benzaldehyde with ethyl cyanoacetate (Fig. 2.36) has become a standard test reaction for solid base catalysts [121]. 

Cesium-exchanged zeolite X was used as a solid base catalyst in the Knoevenagel condensation of benzaldehyde or benzyl acetone with ethyl cyanoacetate [121]. The latter reaction is a key step in the synthesis of the fragrance molecule, citronitrile (see Fig. 2.37). However, reactivities were substantially lower than those observed with the more strongly basic hydrotalcite (see earlier). Similarly, Na-Y and Na-Beta catalyzed a variety of Michael additions [122] and K-Y and Cs-X were effective catalysts for the methylation of aniline and phenylaceto-nitrile with dimethyl carbonate or methanol, respectively (Fig. 2.37) [123]. These procedures constitute interesting green alternatives to classical alkylations using methyl halides or dimethyl sulfate in the presence of stoichiometric quantities of conventional bases such as caustic soda. 

Reactions of chrotnene 168 (Scheme 32) with Knoevenagel adducts derived from aldehydes and ethyl cyanoacetate or malononitrile and ammonium acetate yielded, after condensation, libraries of general structure 169 and 170, respectively [69]. 

Kloetstra [230] used Na and Cs exchanged Al-MCM-41 catalysts to carry out a base catalyzed reaction, namely the Knoevenagel condensation of benzaldehyde with ethyl cyanoacetate (Scheme 4). 

The catalytic activity of proton sponge in the Knoevenagel reaction has been studied227. It was shown that benzaldehyde, in the presence of 2 mol% of 1, reacts with ethyl cyanoacetate and ethyl acetoacetate (equation 22). The condensation is accelerated in polar solvents (especially in DMSO) and does not occur in the case of diethyl malonate, as its CH-acidity is too low (pK = 13.3). 

Hydrotalcite-derived materials also show good performances in analogous reactions, such as the Claisen-Schmidt condensation of substituted 2-hydroxyacetophe-nones with substituted benzaldehydes, the synthetic route to flavonoids and the condensation of 2,4-dimethoxyacetophenone with p-anisaldehyde to synthesize Vesidryl, a diuretic drug [270]. Another similar class of reactions in which HT-based materials give good results are Knoevenagel condensations [271]. An example is the synthesis of citronitrile, a perfumery compound with a citrus-like odor, which can be prepared by HT-catalyzed condensation of benzylacetone with ethyl cyanoacetate, followed by hydrolysis and decarboxylation (Figure 2.42b) [272]. 

The Knoevenagel reaction between benzaldehydes 22 and malononitrile or ethyl cyanoacetate 74 followed by condensation of the resulting ot,p-unsatu-rated nitriles 75 with dimedone (76) was performed in the presence of SiO2-(CH2)3-NEt2 (Scheme 3.22). ... 

The Knoevenagel condensation was also performed with MCM-41-(6112)3-NH-(CH2)2-NH2 catalyst prepared through post-modification methodology/ utilizing (2-aminomethylaminopropyl)trimethoxysilane. Various aldehydes and ketones were reacted with malononitrile and ethyl cyanoacetate (Scheme 3.21, R =R = CN and R CN, R = EtOCO) in all the reactions total conversions were achieved in toluene with exclusive formation of dehydrated products (75-100% yield). Interestingly, both aliphatic and aromatic carbonyl compounds showed identical reactivity in the reaction with ethyl cyanoacetate and the substitution on the aromatic ring did not influence the reactivity. 

Knoevenagel condensation of aldehydes/ketones with malonitrile and ethyl cyanoacetate. The reactions were carried out under homogeneous and biphasic conditions, including the use of liquid-silica supported IL, with the biphasic system employing cyclohexene as the second phase. Although supported ILs showed a reduced initial activity, in general an excellent recyclability was observed, with the reaction repeated over five times without leaching of the IL into the extractant phase or reduction in activity. 

The catalytic activity of the NHs-grafted mesoporous silica, FSMN, was examined in some base-catalysed condensations (eqn. 1). The results were listed in Table 1. The FSMN catalyst used here was FSMN-5 that was prepared by the pre-activation at 1073 K followed by NH3-treatment at 973 K. The Aldol condensation of benzaldehyde and acetone did not proceed in this condition (entry 1). The Knoevenagel condensation of benzaldehyde and diethyl malonate (entry 2) did not occurred. On the other hand, the reactions with malononitrile (entry 3) and with ethyl cyanoacetate (entry 4) were catalysed by the FSMN-5. This shows that the NHa-grafted mesoporous silica would function as base catalyst. 

Table 2 shows the results of the Knoevenagel condensation of benzaldehyde and ethyl cyanoacetate on the FSM-16 and the FSMN samples prepared in various conditions. The reaction occurred on all FSMN samples (entry 1-5), while reaction did not occur over unmodified FSM-16 (entry 7). H-NMR and GC did not detect any by-products, confirming the progress of the selective reaction. Moreover, it was confirmed that basic species would not elute during the reaction, since the filtrate after the reaction over active catalyst did not exhibit the activity. 

The moisture- and air-stable ionic liquids, l-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetra-lluoroborate [bmim]BF and l-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [bmim]PFg, were used as green recyclable alternatives to volatile organic solvents for the ethylenediaimnonium diacetate-catalyzed Knoevenagel condensation between aldehydes or ketones with active methylene compounds. As described by Su et al. [57], the ionic hquids containing a catalyst were recycled several times without decrease in yields and reaction rates. In the case of 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde, the reactions led to the formation of 3-substituted coumarin derivatives in high yields of up to 95% (Scheme 17.11). When ethyl cyanoacetate was used, 2-imino-27f-l-benzopyran-3-carboxyhc acid ethyl ester was formed. 

Ethyl t-vinyl-cr-cyano-S-phenylcinnamate (20,21) was synthesized in a sequence of five steps from t-ethylbenzoic acid. t-Ethylbenzo-phenone was condensed with cyanoacetate by the Knoevenagel reaction again, bromination and dehydrobromination were the last two steps to ethyl t-vinyl-cy-cyano -0 -phenylc innamat e. 

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