Possibility of applying the electrochemical version of the Horner reaction to the synthesis of unsaturated lactones

Direct electrochemical reduction of specially synthesized 2-(diethoxyphosphorylacetoxy] benzaldehyde on a platinum electrode in an aprotic medium is accompanied by ester bond cleavage, and not formation of coumarin via the phosphonate-anion followed by intramolecular Horner cyclization. This could be realized, as a matter of principle, in the presence of an ionol anion (2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenoxide), electrochemically generatedin situ.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1, pp. 144–146, January, 1993.