A new procedure for the synthesis of 2-[(4-dodecyloxyphenyl)sulfonyl]butanoic acid

Abstract

A new, practical and cost-effective route for scalable synthesis of 2-[(4-dodecyloxyphenyl)sulfonyl] butanoic acid, a key intermediate of a new cyan dye-forming coupler containing a sulfone group, was developed by adopting phenol as the starting material. The synthesis was accomplished in five steps with etherification, chlorosulfonation, reduction, nucleophilic reaction by C-S coupling and hydrolyzation. An important objective of the new synthetic route was the synthesis of 2-[4-(dodecyloxyphenyl)sulfonyl]butanoate. Overall yield obtained at optimized conditions increased to 66 %. The synthetic strategy was proven to be a process enabling rapid delivery of the target product with high purity.