Photochemical reaction of benzaldehyde and benzyl alcohol with methyl acrylate

Conclusions The major low-molecular-weight product of the photochemical reaction of benzyl alcohol with methyl acrylate, in both the presence and absence of benzaldehyde, is the methyl ester of 4-methoxycarbonyl-6-oxo-6-phenylhexanoic acid (obtained in 2–16% preparative yield). The photolysis of systems containing a primary alcohol, the corresponding aldehyde, and methyl acrylate was found unsuitable for the preparation of 4-substituted-butanolides.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 10, pp. 2384–2387, October, 1985.