Crotonate methyl

Methyl crotonate (IV) yields the valuable synthetic reagent methyl Y-bromo-crotonate (V) ... 

Methyl crotonate. Purify commercial crotonic acid by distiUing 100 g. from a 100 ml. Claisen flask attached to an air condenser use an air bath (Fig. II, 5, 3). The pure acid passes over at 180-182° and crystallises out on cooling, m.p. 72-73° the recovery is about 90 per cent. Place 75 g. of absolute methyl alcohol, 5 g. (2 -7 ml.) of concentrated sulphuric acid and 50 g. of pure crotonic acid in a 500 ml. round-bottomed flask and heat under reflux for 12 hours. Add water, separate the precipitated ester and dissolve it in ether wash with dilute sodium carbonate solution until effervescence ceases, dry with anhydrous magnesium sulphate, and remove the ether on a water bath. Distil and collect the methyl crotoiiato at 118-120° the yield is 40 g. 

Methyl y-bromocrotonate. Mix 36 g. of iV-bromosuccinimide, 40 g. of methyl crotonate and 60 ml. of dry, redistilled carbon tetrachloride in a 500 ml. round bottomed flask. Reflux ou a water bath for 12 hours by this time all the sohd should have risen to the surface of the liquid. Filter off the succinimide at the pump and wash it with a little dry carbon tetrachloride. Remove the solvent on a water bath and distil the residue under reduced pressure, preferably from a Widmer flask (compare Figs. II, 24, 4-5). Collect the methyl y-bromocrotonate at 77-78°/8 mm. the yield is 31 g. 

The carbonylation process is operated at mild temperatures (45—110°C) and elevated pressures (2—6 MPa = 20 60 atm), and can be carried out in MMA or in an inert solvent such as /V-methy1pyrro1idinone. Selectivities are claimed in excess of 99%, thereby requiring minimal purification to obtain high quahty product MMA. The principal by-product is methyl crotonate. 

The addition of diazomethane to unsaturated esters (1), as ethyl acrylate, methyl crotonate and ethyl cinnamate, was investigated by Auwers who showed that the primary addition product is a A -pyrazoline (2) which rearranges spontaneously to the conjugated A -pyrazoline (3). 

Michael addition reaction of 1-hydroxytryptamines to Q ,/3-unsaturated carbonyl compounds is worthy of note (99H2815). Addition of Ab-acetyl- 1-hydroxy-tryptamine (39) to methyl acrylate and methyl crotonate in the presence of... 

Acrylic acid (AA) and methacrylic acid (MAA) (purchased from Merck) are freed from inhibitor on a neutral aluminium oxid column and distilled. Acrylamide (AM) from Kebo, Stockholm, is recrystallized once from chloroform solution before use. Other monomers of analytical grade were purchased from Merck and used as received crotonic acid (CA), tiglic acid (TA), 3-methyl crotonic acid (3-MCA), and a-methyl cinnamic acid (oi-MCia) (Table 1). Benzophenone (analytical grade, Kebo) and acetone (spectroscope grade, Merck) were used as supplied. 

However, a-substituted dipolarophiles give poor selectivity and P-substituted dipolarophiles such as methyl crotonate fail to react. 

Diazomethane is also decomposed by N O)40 -43 and Pd(0) complexes43 . Electron-poor alkenes such as methyl acrylate are cyclopropanated efficiently with Ni(0) catalysts, whereas with Pd(0) yields were much lower (Scheme 1)43). Cyclopropanes derived from styrene, cyclohexene or 1-hexene were formed only in trace yields. In the uncatalyzed reaction between diazomethane and methyl acrylate, methyl 2-pyrazoline-3-carboxylate and methyl crotonate are formed competitively, but the yield of the latter can be largely reduced by adding an appropriate amount of catalyst. It has been verified that cyclopropane formation does not result from metal-catalyzed ring contraction of the 2-pyrazoline, Instead, a nickel(0)-carbene complex is assumed to be involved in the direct cyclopropanation of the olefin. The preference of such an intermediate for an electron-poor alkene is in agreement with the view that nickel carbenoids are nucleophilic 44). 

In yet another example of an in situ reductive generation of an enolate, fi-amido esters are formed via the reaction of an o, /3-unsaturated ester with a silane in the presence of an isocyanate (Eq. 294).475 The yields obtained using methyl acrylate and methyl crotonate as substrates are generally excellent. 

Asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions. Unlike methyl crotonate, which is a weak dienophile, chiral (E)-crotonyl oxazolidinones when activated by a dialkylaluminum chloride (1 equiv.) are highly reactive and diastereoselective dienophiles. For this purpose, the unsaturated imides formed from oxazolidinones (Xp) derived from (S)-phenylalanol show consistently higher diastereoselectivity than those derived from (S)-valinol or (IS, 2R)-norephedrine. The effect of the phenyl group is attributed in part at least to an electronic interaction of the aromatic ring. The reactions of the unsaturated imide 1 shown in equation (I) are typical of reactions of unsaturated N-acyloxazolidinones with cyclic and acyclic dienes. All the Diels-Alder reactions show almost complete endo-selectivity and high diastereoselectivity. Oxazolidinones are useful chiral auxiliaries for intramolecular Diels-Alder... 

Methyl crotonate reacts with NBS and brominates is allylic position giving methyl 3-bromocrotonate, a valuable synthetic reagent used in Reformatsky reaction. 

Reactions of 3-methylthio-4-trimethylsilyl-l,2-butadiene with electron-poor monosub-stituted and disubstituted alkenes were promoted by a catalytic amount of ethylaluminum dichloride, affording the corresponding methylenecyclobutanes with high selectivities and with yields ranging from 37% for methyl crotonate to 97% for methacrylonitrile15. 

Hawkins and Loren225 reported simple chiral arylalkyldichloroborane catalysts 352 which were effectively used in the cycloadditions of acrylates lib and 350 to cyclopen-tadiene, affording adducts 351a and 351b, respectively (equation 99). A crystal structure of the molecular complex between methyl crotonate and the catalyst allowed the authors to rationalize the outcome of the reaction. One face of methyl crotonate is blocked by tt-tt donor-acceptor interactions, as becomes clear from the structure of complex 353. The cycloadduct of methyl acrylate and cyclopentadiene (5 equivalents) was obtained with 97% ee, using the same catalyst. Three years later, the authors reported that the cycloadduct was obtained with 99.5% ee in the presence of 10 equivalents of cyclopentadiene226. 

The cathodic coupling of prenyl chloride with diethyl fumarate and methyl crotonate proceeds with different regios-electivities as shown in Fig. 17 [94]. Also in this case, the change in the regioselectivity appears to be due to the reduction of the diethyl fumarate to a radical anion that undergoes a nucleophilic substitution at the prenyl chloride, and in the other case there is a 2e reduction of the prenyl... 

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