Sarcosine → N-Carbobenzoxysarcosine

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

N-methylglycine (7.0 g) was added to water (50 ml) and the pH of the solution adjusted to 9 with solid sodium bicarbonate. The solution was cooled to 0° C. and stirred vigorously, while benzyl chloroformate (19 ml) was added dropwise over 20 minutes. The mixture was stirred for a further 2 hours at 0° C. and an additional 2 hours at room temperature, then extracted with diethyl ether (2×130 ml). The aqueous solution was then acidified to pH 3 with 5N HCl and the product isolated by extraction with ethyl acetate (2×130 ml). The combined organic extracts were dried over anhydrous sodium sulphate and the solution concentrated in vacuo to give N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)-N-methylglycine as a pale yellow oil (16.2 g).

Provenance & Evidence