Hydrochloric Acid → tert-Butyl (R)-2-hydroxybutyrate

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

tert-Butyl acetoacetate [15] (14.5 g, 90 mmol) and methanol (30 mL) were mixed and deoxygenated with flowing nitrogen for 5 minutes in a septum covered Parr shaker bottle. The catalyst prepared as described above (36 mg, 0.02 mmol) was added along with 2N HCl (0.041 mL, 0.082 mmol). The mixture was transferred to a standard Parr shaker apparatus and flushed by evacuating and refilling with nitrogen and then hydrogen several times. The apparatus was heated at 40° C. with shaking under 50 psi of hydrogen. After 20 min the reaction became a homogeneous clear yellow solution which took up hydrogen for approximately eight hours. At this time the reaction was complete and the mixture was cooled and diluted with hexane (30 mL) to precipitate the catalyst, which was filtered away. The filtrate was concentrated to give tert-butyl 3(R)-hydroxybutyrate [16] (14.5 g, 97%).

Provenance & Evidence