Synthesis of 3-chloro-2-oxo-butanoate

Abstract

3-chloro-2-oxo-butyric acid ethyl ester 5 is an important intermediate in many biologically active compounds such as thiazole carboxylic acids. In this work, a rapid synthetic method for compound 5 was established. The compound 5 was synthesized from the commercially available diethyl oxalate through two steps including nucleophilic substitution, chlorinated. The structure was confirmed by MS and 1 HNMR. Furthermore, the synthetic method was optimized. The total yield of the two steps was30%