Silyl ketene acetals Claisen condensation

Modified Claisen condensation. Silyl ketene acetals and methyl esters (important ) react in the presence of Me3Al in toluene to afford mixed methyl/silyl acetals of (3-ketoesters. 

Other reports deal with a pyrrolidine-catalysed homo-aldol condensation of aliphatic aldehydes (further accelerated by benzoic acid), a diastereoselective aldol-type addition of chiral boron azaenolates to ketones,the use of TMS chloride as a catalyst for TiCU-mediated aldol and Claisen condensations, a boron-mediated double aldol reaction of carboxylic esters, gas-phase condensation of acetone and formaldehyde to give methyl vinyl ketone, and ab initio calculations on the borane-catalysed reaction between formaldehyde and silyl ketene acetal [H2C=C(OH)OSiH3]. ... 

Several routes to this class of compounds have been reported, such as (a) crossed Claisen condensation reactions (50-53) (b) acylation of the anion derived from ethyl fluoroacetate (54) or self-condensation of the anion derived from ethyl bromofluoroacetate (55) (c) electrophilic fluorination of the anion of p-ketoesters (56,57) (d) acylation-hydrolysis of fluoroolefins (58) and (e) acylation of fluorine-containing ketene silyl acetals (Easdon, J.C., University of Iowa, unpublished data). The limitations associated with these methods and the success achieved in the alkylation-hydrolysis of a-fluoro phosphorus ylides prompted us to examine acylation-hydrolysis of these a-fluoro ylides as a general route to 2-fluoro-3-oxoesters. 

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