N-Hydroxyphthalimide → Tert-butyl 2-(1,3-dioxoisoindolin-2-yloxy)acetate

Participants

Reaction Steps

To a solution of 49 g of N-hydroxyphthalimide in 25 ml of dimethyl sulfoxide at 5° C., was added portionwise 27.6 g of potassium carbonate. After 10 minutes of stirring the reaction mixture was present as a red slurry to which 75 g of tert-butyl chloroacetate was added dropwise over 1 hour at 5° C. The resulting reaction mixture was stirred for 18 hours and poured into ice water. The solid product was filtered, dissolved in methylene chloride and washed with water. The methylene chloride phase was dried over magnesium sulfate, filtered and stripped and recrystallized from ethanol to give 77.5 g of 2-(2-tertbutoxy-2-oxoethoxy)-1H-isoindole-1,3(2H)-dione; m.p. 146°-7° C.

Provenance & Evidence