Acetic Acid → 3-(3,4-Dichlorophenyl)-2-oxopropyl Acetate

Reaction equation

Cl[CH2:2][C:3](=[O:13])[CH2:4][C:5]1[CH:10]=[CH:9][C:8]([Cl:11])=[C:7]([Cl:12])[CH:6]=1.[C:14]([OH:17])(=[O:16])[CH3:15].C(N(CC)CC)C>CC(C)=O>[C:14]([O:17][CH2:2][C:3](=[O:13])[CH2:4][C:5]1[CH:10]=[CH:9][C:8]([Cl:11])=[C:7]([Cl:12])[CH:6]=1)(=[O:16])[CH3:15]

Participants

Procedure

In a round-bottomed flask, 1-chloro-3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)propan-2-one (0.545 g, 2.30 mmol) was taken up in 2 mL acetone, and acetic acid (0.26 mL, 0.28 g, 4.6 mmol) was added. The solution was cooled in an ice water bath, and triethylamine (0.64 mL, 0.47 g, 4.6 mmol) added dropwise via syringe over 30 minutes. The reaction mixture was then stirred overnight. Precipitated triethylammonium chloride was removed by filtration, and the filtrate was evaporated, taken up in 10 mL ethyl acetate, washed twice with brine, dried over anhydrous MgSO4, filtered, and evaporated. The crude product was purified by flash chromatography over silica gel (10-30% ethyl acetate in hexanes) to give a pure product (0.200 g, 33% yield): 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3) δ 2.17 (s, 3H) 3.71 (s, 2H) 4.71 (s, 2H) 7.05 (dd, J=8.2, 2.2 Hz, 1H) 7.32 (d, J=2.0 Hz, 1H) 7.41 (d, J=8.1 Hz, 1H).