Diethyl 2-Cyano-3-oxosuccinate

Abstract

The titular compound was characterized for the first time using a full range of spectroscopic methods, including UV, IR, 1H, and 13C NMR spectra. In solution, all methods showed a keto–enol equilibrium strongly shifted to the enol form. The X-ray structures determined for all simple 2-oxosuccinates showed only the enol form packed as hydrogen-bonded dimer stacks.