Benzaldehyde → HCID 9964892, compound

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

At room temperature, a three-necked flask fitted with reflux condenser, internal thermometer, dropping funnel and stirrer was charged, under nitrogen protective gas, with 5.6 g of zinc powder (85 mmol) in 35 ml of ethyl acetate. After 1.61 ml of trimethylchlorosilane (12.6 mmol) had been added, the mixture was heated at 65° C. for 30 min, then left to cool to 60° C., following which 10 g of neat 1-phenylhexan-3-one prepared by base-catalyzed aldol condensation of benzaldehyde and pentan-2-one and subsequent hydrogenation of the resulting 1-phenylhex-1-en-3-one were added. Subsequently, over the course of 5 min, 10.4 g of methyl bromoacetate (68 mmol) were added dropwise, the temperature being maintained at 65° C. by external cooling. The mixture was stirred for 30 min at 60° C., and following cooling to 0° C., acidified with 35 ml of 2 N hydrochloric acid to a pH of 1 and stirred for 30 min. Excess zinc was removed by filtration and the organic phase separated. The organic phase was then stirred at 0° C. with 30 ml of 0.5 N hydrochloric acid and finally washed with 20 ml of saturated sodium hydrogen carbonate solution. Following phase separation and drying over sodium sulfate, the solvent was removed by distillation under reduced pressure. Methyl 3-hydroxy-3-(2′-phenylethyl)caproate was obtained in a yield of 13.5 g (95% of theory) and a purity of greater than 97% (HPLC).

Provenance & Evidence