1- Naphthol Knoevenagel reaction

Intramolecular cyclization. Knoevenagel condensation of diphenylacetaldehyde with diethyl malonate (piperidinium acetate catalysis) results in only a trace of the expected product when molecular sieves are present, the a-naphthol 1 is formed in 52% yield.2 A similar reaction is observed with ethyl acetoacetate and ethyl benzoylacetate. 

Usually the Knoevenagel condensation yields the unsaturated product, but, with appropriate aldehydes, 3-hydroxymalonates can be isolated. The unusual formation of an a-naphthol (74) has been reported from the reaction of diphenylacetaldehyde (73) with diethyl malonate under Knoevenagel conditions." Condensation of stdicyl dehydes and other aromatic o-hydroxy aldehydes with malonates is still in use for the synthesis of the corresponding coumarin-3-carboxylic esters (75). - " Reduction... 

An interesting route to a-carboxy-8-lactones (81) and a-methylenelactones (80), based on hydrolysis of Knoevenagel products (79) of Meldrum s acid with cyclic aliphatic ketones (78), has been developed (Scheme 14). Reduction of 5-methylene derivatives of Meldrum s acid has been performed catalyti-caiiyi30 or by use of LAH. Imidoylation reaction of Meldrum s acid and subsequent solvolysis of the resulting (82) yields -enamino esters (83) in good yields.Flash vacuum pyrolysis of alkylidene derivatives of Meldrum s acid can be used to prepare methylene ketenes (84), a class of compounds difficult to prepare by conventional methods. By this procedure, methylene ketenes are obtained from aromatic aldehydes and ketones and from aliphatic ketones in only two steps. Intramolecular trapping of the methylene ketene obtained from the ketone (85) has been used successfully in the synthesis of the naphthol (86). ... 

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