Preparation of Functionalized Esters of Carboxylic Acids

The synthesis of simple esters (methyl, ethyl, etc.) of carboxylic acids is generally a trivial synthetic transformation due to the great variety of mehtods available (CH₂N₂, MeOH-H⁺,Me₂SO₄-Base, copper salts-alkylhalides¹, and CaO with alkylhalides²). However, what was sought in this laboratory were methods for preparation of functionalized esters. Specifically, Investigations are underway to develop methods for intra molecular transfer or intramolecular reaction of the functionalized (“R”) portion of the carboxylic acid ester (as illustrated below).