Dedicated to my research supervisor Prof. Ahmad Shaabani
Introduction
In 1952 Carroll and Bader reported that diketene and acetone can be reacted to afford
2,2,6-trimethyl-4H-1,3-dioxin-4-one (1) (Scheme [1]).[
1
]
Scheme 1
Dioxinone 1 is stable at room temperature, but decomposes when pyrolyzed into acetylketene 2 and acetone. Therefore, this compound is an important building block in organic synthesis
as direct precursor of β-dicarbonyls compounds. Thus, pyrolysis of 1 provides an acetoacetylation procedure in the presence of nucleophiles (Scheme [2]).[
2
]
Scheme 2
Due to the importance of β-dicarbonyls compounds[
3
] as excellent materials in the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds, the alternative
method for the synthesis of them is the use of acetoacetylating reagents. Because
of some drawbacks of using diketene as acetoacetylating reagent, 2,2,6-trimethyl-4H-1,3-dioxin-4-one, a 1:1 acetone diketene adduct is a convenient alternative to diketene.
