Pinacolones

When pinacol is warmed with acids, it undergoes rearrangement to pinacolone, with an over-all loss of one molecule of water. 

Add cautiously 15 ml. of concentrated sulphuric acid to 50 ml. of water in a 100 ml. distilling-flask, and then add 10 g. of pinacol hydrate. Distil the solution slowly. When about 40 ml. of distillate (consisting of pinacolone and water) have been collected, and no more pinacolone comes over, extract the distillate with ether. Dry the extract over sodium sulphate. Distil the dry filtered extract carefully, with the normal precautions for ether distillation (p. 164). When the ether has been removed, continue the distillation slowly, rejecting any fraction coming over below 100 . Collect the pinacolone, b.p. 106 , as a colourless liquid having a peppermint odour. Yield, 4 5-5 o g. A small quantity of higher-boiling material remains in the flask. 

To meet the needs of the advanced students, preparations have now been included to illustrate, for example, reduction by lithium aluminium hydride and by the Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley method, oxidation by selenium dioxide and by periodate, the Michael, Hoesch, Leuckart and Doebner-Miller Reactions, the Knorr pyrrole and the Hantzsch collidine syntheses, various Free Radical reactions, the Pinacol-Pinacolone, Beckmann and Arbusov Rearrangements, and the Bart and the Meyer Reactions, together with many others. 

The pinacolone may be employed for the preparation of trimethylacetlc acid (plvallc acid) by oxidation with sodium hypobromite solution ... 

Pinacolone. In a 500 ml. round-bottomed flask carrying a dropping funnel and a connection to a condenser set for distillation, place 50 g. of pinacol hydrate and 130 ml. of QN sulphuric acid. Distil the mixture until the upper layer of the distillate no longer increases in volume (15-20 minutes). Separate the pinacolone layer from the water and return the latter to the reaction flask. Then add 12 ml. of concentrated sulphuric acid to the water, followed by a second 50 g. portion of pinacol hydrate. Repeat the distillation. Repeat the process twice more until 200 g. of pinacol hydrate have been used. 

Dry the combined pinacolone fractions over anhydrous magnesium sulphate and distil. Collect the pinacolone at 103-107°. The yield is 62 g. 

Pinacol-pinacolone rearrangement Prileschajew epoxidation reaction Reformataky reaction Reimer-Tiemanii reaction Rosenmund reduction Sandmeyer reaction Schiemaim reaction Schmidt reaction or rearrangement Schotten-Baumann reaction Skraup reaction Sommelet reaction. ... 

Synthesis Ketone A is just pinacolone, the product of the pinacol rearrangement (frames 154-5). 

Methyl /-butyl ketone [1634-04-4] (pinacolone) has been prepared in 74% yield by reaction of / f/-amyl alcohol with formaldehyde in the presence of strong acid catalyst (78,79). 

Other Rea.ctlons, The anhydride of neopentanoic acid, neopentanoyl anhydride [1538-75-6] can be made by the reaction of neopentanoic acid with acetic anhydride (25). The reaction of neopentanoic acid with acetone using various catalysts, such as titanium dioxide (26) or 2irconium oxide (27), gives 3,3-dimethyl-2-butanone [75-97-8] commonly referred to as pinacolone. Other routes to pinacolone include the reaction of pivaloyl chloride [3282-30-2] with Grignard reagents (28) and the condensation of neopentanoic acid with acetic acid using a rare-earth oxide catalyst (29). Amides of neopentanoic acid can be prepared direcdy from the acid, from the acid chloride, or from esters, using primary or secondary amines. 

F I T T I G Pinacolone Rearrangement Acid catalyzed cartxjcation reanangement o< f, 2-diols to ketones... 

The reaction of tnflic acid with 2-hydroxy-2-adamantanecarboxylic acid results in decarbonylation to adamantanone [84] However, in the presence of carbon monoxide, the same reactants give 4,3 homoadamantanedione as the product of a pinacolone-type rearrangement (equation 35)... 

DimethyI-2 3-butanediol has the common name piiuicol. On heating with aqueous acid, pinacol rearranges to pinacolone, 3,3-dimethyl-2-butanone. Suggest a mechanism for this reaction. 

---