Formaldehyde → Benzoic acid, 3-formyl-4-hydroxy-, methyl ester

Participants

Reaction Steps

Methyl 4-hydroxybenzoate (3.00 g, 19.7 mmol) and magnesium chloride (2.81 g, 29.5 mmol) were stirred in 100 mL of acetonitrile. TEA (10.3 mL, 73.9 mmol) was added via syringe. Paraformaldehyde (12.0 g, 133 mmol) was added in a single portion and the reaction was heated to reflux. The reaction was stirred at reflux for 24 hours and cooled to rt. The reaction was quenched by the addition of approximately 100 mL of 1N HCl and poured into EtOAc. The layers were separated, and the organic layer was washed with brine. The combined aqueous layers were extracted with EtOAc. The combined organic layers were dried over MgSO4, filtered, and concentrated in vacuo. The crude product was purified by flash chromatography. The clean fractions (by TLC) were concentrated in vacuo to afford 2.06 g (58%) of the desired product. 1H NMR (400 MHz, DMSO-d6): δ 11.54 (s, 1H), 10.27 (s, 1H), 8.21 (d, J=2.4 Hz, 1H), 8.03 (dd, J=8.8, 2.4 Hz, 1H), 7.07 (d, J=8.8 Hz, 1H), 3.79 (s, 3H).

Provenance & Evidence