Benzyl Bromide → Methyl 4-(benzyloxy)-3-bromobenzoate

Participants

Reaction Steps

Methyl 3-bromo-4-hydroxybenzoate [prepared as per Tetrahedron, 2003, 59, 9173] (3.47 g, 15.0 mmol) was dissolved in acetonitrile (50 ml), anhydrous potassium carbonate (3.11 g, 22.5 mmol) was added and the stirred mixture was treated with benzyl bromide (3.08 g, 18.0 mmol) and held at reflux for 5 hours. Upon cooling the solvent was removed in vacuo and the mixture partitioned between water and dichloromethane. The organic layer was separated, the solvent removed in vacuo and the residue subjected to column chromatography on silica. Elution with 10% ethyl acetate in petroleum ether afforded methyl 4-benzyloxy-3-bromobenzoate (3.6 g, 75%) as a colourless solid. 1H NMR (DMSO-d6) 8.12 (1H, d), 7.96 (1H, dd), 7.51 (2H, m), 7.43 (2H, t), 7.35 (2H, m), 5.32 (2H, s), 3.84 (3H, s).

Provenance & Evidence