4-Iodo-1,2-dimethoxybenzene → 4-Phenoxycatechol dimethyl ether

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Reaction Steps

R = 4-phenoxy. Heating a mixture of 4-iodoveratrol (Janssen et al., J. Org. Chem. 20, 1326 (1955)), sodium phenoxide and a catalytic amount of copper powder at about 200° C. for about 4 hours, then pouring the mixture over ice, extracting the mixture with an organic solvent such as ether, drying the extract, stripping the solvent and distilling the residue to give 4-phenoxycatechol dimethyl ether. Treating this product with an anhydrous aluminum chloride/sodium chloride melt (Janssen et al., supra), pouring the resulting mixture into ice-hydrochloric acid, extracting the mixture with an organic solvent, stripping the solvent under reduced pressure and fractionally distilling the residue gives the desired 4-phenoxycatechol.

Provenance & Evidence