O- and C-alkylations of ethyl nitroacetate with benzyl halides

摘要

THE chemistry of nitronic esters remains relatively unknown due to their conspicuous feature of instability. In the preceding papers, we described the late progress in the researchof nitronic esters: (i) nitronic esters were first synthesized via O-alkylation of the alkali metal salt of the aci-nitro compound (fig. 1) with various alkyl halides (in the presence of K_2CO_3 and DMF); (ii) stable nitronic esters were first prepared;(iii) the configuration of nitronic esters was first determined by experiments (NOE); and (iV) single isomers of optically pure chiral nitronic esters were first obtained by way of asymmetric O-alkylation.