Sodium Hydroxide → 4,4-Dimethylpentanoic acid

Participants

Reaction Steps

4,4-Dimethyl-pentanoic acid methyl ester (7.0 g, 48.5 mmol, 1.0 eq.) was treated with a solution of NaOH (4.0 g, 100 mmol, 2.1 eq.) in water (5 mL). The homogeneous solution was allowed to stir for 4-5 hours. The reaction was diluted with CH2Cl2 and the aqueous layer was extracted with CH2Cl2 (50 mL×3). The aqueous layer was acidified with 6M HCl to pH ˜1.5 and extracted with ethyl acetate (50 mL×3). The combined ethyl acetate fractions were dried over MgSO4, filtered and evaporated to provide 4,4-dimethyl-pentanoic acid (5.35 g, 41.1 mmol, 85%) as a colorless oil: 1H NMR (CDCl3, 400 MHz) δ 0.89 (s, 9H), 1.53-1.57 (m, 2H), 2.26-2.30 (m, 2H).

Provenance & Evidence