Hydrochloric Acid → Methyl 2-chloro-3-[4-(2-hydroxyethyl)phenyl]propanoate

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

2-(4-Aminophenyl)ethanol (11 g, 81 mmol) and 32 ml conc HCl was dissolved in acetone and cooled to 0° C. Sodium nitrite (5.6 g, 81 mmol) in 20 ml water was added dropwise. The temperature was kept under 0° C. After one hour, methyl acrylate (70 g, 808 mmol) and CuI (1.6 g, 8 mmol) were added (<0° C.). The reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature overnight. The solvent was evaporated and water was added. The water phase was extracted three times with EtOAc, the organic phases were pooled and washed with water, dried (MgSO4) and evaporated under reduced pressure. The crude product was purified by flash chromatography using a 65:35 mixture of EtOAc and heptane as eluent. Further purification by preparative HPLC (using a gradient of CH3CN/5% CH3CN-waterphase containing 0.1M NH4OAc as eluent) gave 9.7 g product (yield 49%) as an oil.

Provenance & Evidence