Purification, general procedures ketones

The general procedure described here was originally published by the submitters.3 Both ketones and aldehydes may be prepared, and this method is particularly effective when the mild conditions of the Moffat oxidation are required, but the dicyclohexylurea by-product formed with the usual reagents causes purification problems. 

It is recommended that Nelson and Schut s diazomethane procedure be considered first for preparing saturated A-homo-4-ketones, or enlarging cyclic ketones in general, rather than the Tiffeneau procedure, because fewer steps are involved, isolation and purification are operationally simpler, and the overall yield is often better. 

When treated with concentrated alkali, acetoacetic ester is converted into two moles of sodium acetate, (a) Outline all steps in a likely mechanism for this reaction. (Hint See Sec. 21.11 and Problem 5.8, p. 170.) (b) Substituted acetoacetic esters also undergo this reaction. Outline the steps in a general synthetic route from acetoacetic ester to carboxylic acids, (c) Outline the steps in the synthesis of 2-hexanone via acetoacetic ester. What acids will be formed as by-products Outline a procedure for purification of the desired ketone. (Remember that the alkylation is carried out in alcohol that NaBr is formed that aqueous base is used for hydrolysis and that ethyl alcohol is a product of the hydrolysis.)... 

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