Methyl esters, protecting carboxylic acids with

Other esters are sometimes used to protect carboxylic acids, especially when there is a desire to deprotect the acid by using different conditions from those available for methyl esters. Benzyl esters are prepared in the usual manner but can be cleaved by reaction with hydrogen and a catalyst. Again it is the benzylic carbon-oxygen bond that is broken in the hydrogenolysis reaction ... 

Methyl and ethyl esters of carboxylic acids are successfully cleaved with bis(tri- -butyltin) oxide to give the free carboxylic acids even in the presence of other functional groups and/or protecting groups (Equation (94)).257... 

Carboxylic acids are protected as their esters such as methyl esters, tert-hutyl esters, allyl esters, benzyl esters, phenacyl esters and alkoxyalkyl esters. The esters are formed by the reaction of carboxylic acid with alcohol, and the reaction is known as esterification. 

The Dim ester was developed for the protection of the carboxyl function during peptide synthesis. It is prepared by transesterification of amino acid methyl esters with 2-(hydroxymethyl)-l,3-dithiane and Al(/-PrO)3 (reflux, 4 h, 75°, 12 torr, 75% yield). It is removed by oxidation [H2O2, (NH4)2Mo04 pH 8, H2O, 60 min, 83% yield]. Since it must be removed by oxidation it is not compatible with.sulfur-containing amino acids such as cysteine and methionine. Its suitability for other, easily oxidized amino acids (e.g., tyrosine and tryptophan) must also be questioned. It is stable to CF3CO2H and HCl/ether. - ... 

In the second major method of peptide synthesis the carboxyl group is activated by converting it to an active ester, usually a p-nitrophenyl ester. Recall from Section 20.12 that esters react with ammonia and amines to give fflnides. p-Nitrophenyl esters are much more reactive than methyl and ethyl esters in these reactions because p-nitrophenoxide is a better (less basic) leaving group than methoxide and ethoxide. Simply allowing the active ester and a C-protected amino acid to stand in a suitable solvent is sufficient to bring about peptide bond formation by nucleophilic acyl substitution. 

One-to-one random copolymers of acrylic acid with either hydroxyethyl acrylate (a hydrogel model) or methyl acrylate failed to protect insulin from release under gastric conditions (Figure 6). In the case of the hydrogel, the expected swelling due to exposure to water occurred, releasing insulin. The behavior of the ester copolymer led to the prediction that there should be no more than about four carbon atoms per carboxylic acid group in a repeat unit of the polymers. We have not been able to disprove this hypothesis thus far. 

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