Glutaric anhydride → 4-(4-Fluorobenzoyl)butyric Acid

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

Charge 250 g of anhydrous AlCl3 (1.87 moles) to a 2 L 3-neck round bottom flask, add 300 mL fluorobenzene (307.5 g; 3.2 moles) and cool the mixture in an ice bath to 5° C. Add a hazy suspension of 100 g glutaric anhydride (0.86 mole) in 400 mL fluorobenzene (4.3 moles) through an addition funnel over a period of 45 min., and maintain the temperature below 12° C. Warm the reaction mixture to ambient temperature gradually and agitate at r.t. for about 90 min.; check for completion by NMR. Cool the reaction mixture to 0 to 5° C., then add a cold aqueous solution (700 mL) of 1N HCl carefully to the mixture to destroy any unreacted AlCl3, keeping the temperature of the mixture below 20° C. during the early part of the acid addition, and below 40° C. for the rest of the time. Pour the entire mixture into a 2 L 1:1 mixture of water and ice (v/w) to precipitate out crude products, filter the white suspension and wash well with water. Add the white residue to 3 L of aqueous saturated solution (˜5%) of NaHCO3, heat the basic mixture on a steam bath for one hour and filter the batch while hot through a thin pad of celite. Cool the filtrate to r.t., add about 320 mL of concentrated HCl dropwise into the filtrate to pH 1 to crystallize out products, and agitate the white suspension in an ice bath for 30 min. Filter the batch, wash the wet cake with ice cold water and dry in a vacuum oven at 50° C. for 16 h to obtain 143.2 g of 4-(4-fluorobenzoyl)-butyric acid; m.p. 141 to 142° C., isolated yield: 79.3% .

Provenance & Evidence