Ethanol → 5-Ethoxy-2-pyrrolidinone

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

At 0° C., 9.91 g of succinimide were initially charged in 415 ml of ethanol and admixed, a little at a time, with a total of 5.53 g of sodium borohydride. At this temperature, every 15 minutes 2 to 3 drops of 2N ethanolic hydrogen chloride were added dropwise over a period of 4½ hours. The mixture was subsequently acidified to pH 3 using more acid. The mixture was stirred at 0° C. for one hour and then neutralized with 1% strength ethanolic potassium hydroxide solution, stirred for a further 15 minutes and concentrated. The residue was taken up in water and extracted three times with dichloromethane. Drying over sodium sulphate and concentration gave 7.16 g (55% of theory) of γ-ethoxy-γ-butyrolactam.

Provenance & Evidence