3,4-Dimethoxybenzophenone → Methyl 3-(3,4-Dimethoxyphenyl)-3-phenylacrylate

Participants

Reaction Steps

Methyl 3-(3,4-Dimethoxyphenyl)-3-phenylacrylate was prepared analogously to methyl 3,3-bis-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)acrylate using 3,4-dimethoxybenzophenone (4.8 g, 20 mmol), trimethylphosphonoacetate (4.1 g, 22 mmol) and lithium hexamethyldisilazide (22 mL, 22 mmol, 1 M) with a reaction time of 138 hours at reflux. The crude mixture was purified by flash column chromatography (silica gel, 1% ethyl acetate/methylene chloride) to afford 14.39 g (73%) of a mixture of the E and Z isomers as an oil. The isomers were separated by additional purification (silica gel, 1% ethyl acetate/methylene chloride) to afford pure samples of each of the isomers.

Provenance & Evidence