Sodium ethoxide malonic ester synthesis

The properties of diethyl malonate that make the malonic ester synthesis a useful procedure are the same as those responsible for the synthetic value of ethyl acetoacetate The hydrogens at C 2 of diethyl malonate are relatively acidic and one is readily removed on treatment with sodium ethoxide... 

The malonic ester synthesis can also be used to prepare cydoalkane-carboxvlic acids. For example, when 1,4-dibromobutanc is treated with diethyl malonate in the presence of 2 equivalents of sodium ethoxide base, the second alkylation step occurs intrcunotecidariy to yield a cyclic product. Hydrolysis and decarboxylation then give cvclopentanecarboxylic acid. Three-, four-, five-. 

Both the malonic ester synthesis and the acetoacetic ester synthesis are easy to cany out because they involve unusually acidic dicarbonyi compounds. As a result, relatively mild bases such as sodium ethoxide in ethanol as solvent can be used to prepare the necessary enolate ions. Alternatively, however, it s also possible in many cases to directly alkylate the a position of monocarbonyl compounds. A strong, stericaliy hindered base such as LDA is needed so that complete conversion to the enolate ion takes place rather than a nucleophilic addition, and a nonprotic solvent must be used. 

Malonic Ester Synthesis Synthesis involving a malonic ester or a related compound with a strong base such as sodium ethoxide. The ultimate product is a substituted carboxylic acid. 

In both the acetoacetic ester synthesis and the malonic ester synthesis, it is possible to add two different alkyl groups to the a-carbon in sequential steps. First the enolate ion is generated by reaction with sodium ethoxide and alkylated. Then the enolate ion of the alkylated product is generated by reaction with a second equivalent of sodium ethoxide, and that anion is alkylated with another alkyl halide. An example is provided by the following equation ... 

Although the acetoacetic ester synthesis and the malonic ester synthesis are used to prepare ketones and carboxylic acids, the same alkylation, without the hydrolysis and decarboxylation steps, can be employed to prepare substituted /3-ketoesters and /3-diesters. In fact, any compound with two anion stabilizing groups on the same carbon can be deprotonated and then alkylated by the same general procedure. Several examples are shown in the following equations. The first example shows the alkylation of a /3-ketoester. Close examination shows the similarity of the starting material to ethyl acetoacetate. Although sodium hydride is used as a base in this example, sodium ethoxide could also be employed. 

The cyanoacetic ester synthesis of certain alicyclic compounds is preferred to the malonic ester synthesis. Thus, cyclopropane-1,1-cyano-carboxylate is readily obtained by the condensation of ethylene bromide and ethyl cyanoacetate in the presence of two equivalents of sodium ethoxide (76%). A second procedure for synthesizing alicyclic compounds consists in treating a,a -dibromodicarboxylic esters with alcoholic cyanide, whereby simultaneous replacement and ring closure occurs. ... 

Problem 26.2 Adipic acid is obtained from a malonic ester synthesis in which the first step is addition of one mole of ethylene bromide to a large excess of sodio-malonic ester in alcohol. Cychpropanecarboxyiic acid is the final product of a malonic ester synthesis in which the first step is addition of one mole of sodiomalonic ester to two moles of ethylene bromide followed by addition of one mole of sodium ethoxide. 

There are two classical reaction sequences in organic chemistry that rely on enolate alkylation. One is the malonic ester synthesis.61 jjj synthetic example taken from the Clive and Hisaindee synthesis of brevioxime,62 diethyl malonate was treated with a base such as sodium ethoxide, under thermodynamic control conditions. The resulting enolate anion is treated with the indicated alkyl halide to give the alkylated product 81 (in 72% yield).Saponification of 81 to the dicarboxylic acid (82, in 99% yield), was followed by decarboxylation (sec. 2.9.D) and formation of the substituted acid 83, in 94% yield. ... 

The second classical reaction mentioned above is the acetoacetic ester synthesis. this reaction, an ester of acetoacetic acid (3-oxobutanoic acid) such as ethyl acetoacetate is treated with base under thermodynamic control conditions and alkylated, as with the malonic ester synthesis. Reaction with sodium ethoxide in ethanol (since an ethyl ester is being used) generated the enolate and quenching with benzyl bromide led to 84. Saponification and decarboxylation (as above) gave a substituted ketone (85). Although the malonic ester synthesis and the acetoacetic ester synthesis are fundamentally similar, the different substrates lead to formation of either a highly substituted acid or a ketone. The reaction is not restricted to acetoacetate derivatives, and any p-keto-ester can be used (ethyl 3-oxopentanoate for example). ... 

Variations of the malonic ester and acetoacetic ester sequenees lead to many useful synthetic opportunities. In the examples quoted, the base-solvent pair used was ethanol-sodium ethoxide, where the alkoxide is the conjugate base of tbe solvent. If NaOEt-EtOH were used with a methyl ester, transesterification would give a mixture of methyl and ethyl esters as products. For both malonic ester and acetoacetic ester removal of the most acidic proton (a to both carbonyls) also gives the more thermodynamically stable enolate. Either NaOEt-EtOH or LDA-THF will generate the desired enolate. The malonic ester synthesis is most useful for the synthesis of highly substituted monoacids, and tbe acetoacetic ester synthesis is used to prepare substituted methyl ketones. 

Ester enolates undergo alkylation reactions. When ethyl 3-methylpentanoate (110) reacts with sodium ethoxide in ethanol and then with bromoethane, the product is 111. Alkylation of malonate derivatives leads to an interesting sequence of reactions that are useful in synthesis. The reaction of diethyl malonate (90) and NaOEt in ethanol, followed by reaction with benzyl bromide, gives 112. In a second reaction, 112 reacts with NaOEt in ethanol and then with iodomethane to give 113. Saponification of 113 (see Chapter 20, Section 20.2) gives the dicarboxylic acid, 114, and heating leads to decarboxylation (Section 22.8) and formation of acid 115. This overall sequence converted malonic acid via the diester to a substituted carboxylic acid, and it is known as the malonic ester synthesis. 

Two procedures called the acetoacetic ester synthesis and the malonic ester synthesis take advantage of the properties of p-dicarbonyl compounds and are standard methods for making carbon-carbon bonds. Both begin with alkylation of the enolate. Ethyl esters are normally used, with sodium ethoxide as the base. 

The final step in the synthesis of all barbiturates consists in either condensation of a suitably substituted malonic or cyano-acetic ester with urea by means of sodium ethoxide (scheme a) or... 

In its original form, the Michael addition consisted on the addition of diethyl malonate across the double bond of ethyl cinnamate in the presence of sodium ethoxide to afford a substituted pentanedioic acid ester. Currently, all reactions that involve a 1,4-addition of stabilized carbon nucleophiles to activated 7i-systems are known as Michael additions. Among the various reactants, enolates derived from p-dicarbonyl compounds are substrates of choice due to their easy deprotonation under mild conditions. Recently, Michael addition-based MCRs emerged as highly potential methodologies for the synthesis of polysubstituted heterocycles in the five- to seven-membered series. 

Yet a further increase in potency is observed when the para-isobutyl group is replaced by a benzene ring. One published synthesis for that compound is quite analogous to the malonate route to the parent drug. The acetyl biphenyl (50-1) is thus converted to the corresponding arylacetic acid by reaction with sulfur and morpholine, followed by hydrolysis of the first-obtained thiomorpholide. This is then esterified and converted to malonate anion (50-2) with sodium ethoxide and ethyl formate. The anion is quenched with methyl iodide hydrolysis of the esters followed by decarboxylation yields the NSAID flubiprofen (50-3) [51]. 

Less basic malonic ester anions may be employed for the twofold alkylation of dibromides. Cyclic 1,1-dicarboxylic esters are formed, if the reaction is executed in an appropriate manner. In the synthesis of cyclobutane diester A the undesired open-chain tetraester B was always a side product (J.A. Cason, 1949), the malonic ester and its monoalkylation product were always only partially ionized. Alkylation was therefore slow and intermolecular reactions of mono-alkyl intermediates with excess malonic ester prevailed. If the malonic ester was dissolved in ethanol containing sodium ethoxide, and 1,3-dibromopropane as well as more sodium ethoxide were added slowly to the solution, 63% of A and only 7% of B were isolated. The latter operations kept the malonic ester and its monoalkylated product in the ionic form, and the dibromide concentration low, so that the intramolecular reaction was favored against intermolecular reactions. The continuous addition of base during the reaction kept the ethoxide concentration low, which helped to prevent decomposition of the bromide by this nucleophile. 

Alkylation of malonic ester. This alkylation can be done with a solution of sodium ethoxide in ethanol and requires one mole of reagent per alkyl group introduced. An example is Perkin s synthesis of diethyl cyclobutane-1,1-dicarboxylate by alkylation with triraethylene chlorobromide. When trimethylene dibromide was... 

The reaction of 2-amino-3-nitrosopyridines with compounds containing an activated methylene group permits unambiguous synthesis of various derivatives of pyrido[2,3-b]pyrazine. For example, the pyridine 58 reacts in the presence of sodium ethoxide with a variety of arylacetonitriles and cyanoacetic acid derivatives to provide various 2-substituted 3-amino compounds (59). " " Diethyl malonate reacts similarly to give the 2-carboxylic acid 60, its ester being presumably hydrolyzed in the alkaline reaction conditions. Ethyl acetoacetate yields the 2-acetyl-3-oxo compound 61, and acetylacetone ° provides the 2-acetyl-3-methyl compound 62. The latter condensation proceeds poorly in ethanolic sodium ethoxide, but heating the nitroso compound with acetylacetone under reflux in pyridine gives a 59% yield of the product 62. °... 

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