Hydrochloric Acid → Methyl 3-cyano-2-(4-fluorophenyl)propanoate

Participants

Reaction Steps

To lithium bis(trimethylsilyl)amide (1.0 Min tetrahydrofuran) (18.73 mL, 18.73 mmol) at −78° C. was added methyl 2-(4-fluorophenyl)acetate (3.00 g, 17.84 mmol) as a solution in tetrahydrofuran (5 mL) dropwise. During the addition, a white solid precipitated. After the addition, the reaction was placed in an ice bath and stirred for 1 hour. 2-Bromoacetonitrile (2.354 g, 19.62 mmol) was added as a solution in tetrahydrofuran (2 mL) and the reaction was allowed to stir for an additional 1 hour. The reaction was poured into a mixture of 1 N HCl (50 mL) and ethyl acetate (50 mL). The organic layer was separated, washed with brine (50 mL), dried over magnesium sulfate and concentrate. The resulting reside was chromatographed over silica gel (SF40-115, Analogix®) eluting with a gradient of 5% to 50% ethyl acetate/hexanes (Flow=85 mL/minute) to provide the title compound. 1H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3) δ 7.31-7.19 (m, 2H), 7.13-7.01 (m, 2H), 3.93 (t, J=7.6, 1H), 3.73 (s, 3H), 3.02 (dd, J=7.2, 16.8, 1H), 2.81 (dd, J=8.0, 16.9, 1H).

Provenance & Evidence