Ethyl cyanoacetate → Ethyl 2-cyano-4,4-diethoxybutyrate

Participants

Reaction Steps

A mixture of ethyl 2-cyanoacetate (1000 g, 8.84 mol), 2-bromo-1,1-diethoxyethane (400 g, 2.03 mol), KI (33.4 g, 0.201 mol) and K2CO3 (280 g, 2.03 mol) was heated to reflux for 12 hrs. The reaction mixture was diluted with CH2Cl2 (1000 mL) and the resulting precipitate was filtered off and the filtrate was washed with brine and dried over anhydrous Na2SO4. The solvent was removed in vacuo and the residue distilled to give the title compound (136 g, 29.2% yield) as a light yellow oil that was used as is in the next step.

Provenance & Evidence