Formaldehyde → Diethyl 1H-pyrrole-2,4-dicarboxylate

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

To a round bottom flask under argon was added ethyl 2-isocyanoacetate (100 g, 0.884 mol), dry THF (1.0 L) followed by DBU (132 g, 0.867 mol). The reaction was cooled to 0° C. and formaldehyde (16 g) was added portionwise into the reaction mixture. The reaction was then stirred at room temperature overnight. Then THF was removed under high vacuum and the residue as dissolved with water and extracted with EtOAc (2×1 L). The combined organic layer was washed with water and brine and concentrated. The residue was purified by flash silica gel column chromatography to yield 40 g (26%) of a white solid as the title compound. 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3) δ ppm: 9.85 (1H, br s), 7.54 (1H, m), 7.30 (1H, m), 4.36-4.6 (4H, merging quartets), 1.37-1.26 (6H, merging triplets). LCMS (condition A): m/z=210.2 −ve.

Provenance & Evidence