Synthesis and study of interconversions of new indoline spiropyrans based on 4-hydroxy-3,5-diformylbenzoic acid

The synthesis of new indoline spiropyran by the cyclocondensation in methanol revealed that the free aldehyde group of the target spiropyran is easily converted into the dimethyl acetal moiety without the addition of an acid catalyst, giving 8′-dimethoxymethyl-1,3,3-trimethylspiro[indoline-2,2′-2H-chromene]-5,6′-dicarboxylic acid as a single reaction product. The structure of this compound was confirmed by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The molecular structure was also established by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The Hirshfeld surfaces were generated and analyzed and intermolecular interactions in the crystal were investigated using the CrystalExplorer software package. The reverse hydrolysis reaction of dimethyl acetal to the aldehyde group proceeds under mild conditions in dimethyl sulfoxide, as shown by NMR spectroscopy.