Divergent pathways to isophthalates and naphthalate esters from methyl coumalate

摘要

Methyl coumalate readily reacts with enamines at ambient temperature to give lactones, which can be further transformed into isophthalates and tetrahydronaphthoates. Both cyclic and acyclic enamines show good reactivity. Dehydrogenation of tetrahydronaphthoate 4a was achieved on a hundred-gram scale. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.