Methoxymethyl-formate, hydrolysis

The Acid-Catalyzed Hydrolysis of Methoxymethyl-Formate. The acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of several alkoxymethyl esters was investigated by... 

The acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of simple partial acylals has been studied in condensed phase, " " and a study of the behavior of methoxymethyl formate and methoxymethyl acetate in chemical ionization mass spectrometry was undertaken " to provide a comparison of the gaseous and solution phase chemistry of these simple partial acylals. Methoxymethyl formate and methoxymethyl acetate undergo hydrolysis in aqueous acid by an A lI mechanism,... 

Petrini and co-workers used the bis(methoxymethyl)-protected nitrone 150, also derived frern L-tartrate, as an electrophile rather tfaiui as a 1,3-dipole (Scheme 21, top line) (89). In their key step, reaction with 4-ben loxybutylmagnesium bromide gave the cyclic hydroxylamine 151 in 82% yield (de 90%). Transfer hydrogenation with ammonium formate and a palladium catalyst cleaved both the hydroxylamine and the benzyl ether, affording the aminoalcohol 152. Cyclization via the corresponding primary chloride created the protected indolizidine 153, acidic hydrolysis of t ch completed this short synthesis of ( + )-132 in 16%... 

On a related front, the reactions of carbonyl compounds with metallated derivatives of 2-methylthia-zoline furnish adducts (85). Although the initial nucleophilic addition occurs smoothly with a wide variety of aldehydes and ketones, the intermediate 3-hydroxythiazolines (85) suffer thermal reversion upon attempted purification by distillation. Moreover, attempted cleavage of the corresponding 3-hydroxythia-zolidines, which are readily produced from (85) upon dissolving metal reduction (Al-Hg), leads to the formation of 3-hydroxy aldehydes only in simple systems numerous complications arising from dimerization, dehydration and retroaldol processes of the products usually intervene. Consequently it is necessary to protect the initial 1,2-adducts (85 R2 = H) as the corresponding O-methoxymethyl ether derivatives (86 R2 = MOM), which can then be easily transformed into protected 3-hydroxy aldehydes by sequential reduction and hydrolysis (Scheme 32).55... 

Carbon-Oxygen Bond Formation. CAN is an efficient reagent for the conversion of epoxides into /3-nitrato alcohols. 1,2-cA-Diols can be prepared from alkenes by reaction with CAN/I2 followed by hydrolysis with KOH. Of particular interest is the high-yield synthesis of various a-hydroxy ketones and a-amino ketones from oxiranes and aziridines, respectively. The reactions are operated under mild conditions with the use of NBS and a catalytic amount of CAN as the reagents (eq 25). In another case, N-(silylmethyl)amides can be converted to A-(methoxymethyl)amides by CAN in methanol (eq 26). This chemistry has found application in the removal of electroauxiliaries from peptide substrates. Other CAN-mediated C-0 bondforming reactions include the oxidative rearrangement of aryl cyclobutanes and oxetanes, the conversion of allylic and tertiary benzylic alcohols into their corresponding ethers, and the alkoxylation of cephem sulfoxides at the position a to the ester moiety. 

The initial olefination was accomplished using the Wittig olefination conditions developed by Corey (NaH/DMSO) to afford E/Z mixtures of enol ethers. The enol ethers undergo hydrolysis to the corresponding aldehydes upon treatment with 5% aqueous HF in acetonitrile. Modest degrees of stereoselectivity were observed. The ability of fluoride to mediate the hydrolysis of the (trimethylsilyl)ethoxymethyl moiety may provide opportunities not available when (methoxymethyl)triphenylphosphonium salts are employed. However, it should be noted that Zbiral and Schonauer reported that hydrolysis could not be realized with the use of tetrabutylammonium formate or triethylamine 2HF. 

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