A new method to prepare a,b-unsaturated enol aldehydes is described. 3-Ethoxymethacrolein (1) and 5-formyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyran (5) were effectively prepared from enol ethers and the Vilsmeier-Haack type complex, derived from cyanuric chloride and DMF. One byproduct, amidine 4, was also characterized. a,b-Unsaturated enol aldehydes, such as 3-ethoxymethacrolein (1), are useful precursors to heterocyclic compounds. 2 Breitmaier's group developed a multi-step synthesis to 2-methyl malonic dialdehyde tetraethylacetal, then hydrolyzed to give the compound 1. 2 Nair et al. have reported the Vilsmeier formylation of propionaldehyde diethyl acetal in the presence of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and phosphorous oxychloride (POCl 3) to give the ethoxymethacrolein in 26% yield. 3 Although this method provides a quick entrance to the compound 1, the evolution of gaseous HCl and the difficult work-up/purification procedures are problematic. Babler's group also reported the crossed-Claisen condensation of methyl formate and propanal to give the compound 1 in 61% yield after the alkylation with ethyl bromide. 4 However, this long procedure and the extremely moisture sensitive reaction condition also limit its application. Therefore, developing a direct method to prepare 1 could be useful.
Formylation of n-butyl vinyl etherCyanuric chloride (0.42 g, 2.3 mmol) suspended in DMF (165 mL, 2.1 mmol) and CH 2Cl2 (1 mL) was stirred at room temperature for 3 h. n-Butyl vinyl ether (191 mg, 1.9 mmol) was added to the slurry, and the reaction was stirred for another 48 h at room temperature. Sat. K 2 CO 3(aq) (2 mL) and water (2 mL) were poured into the reaction. The reaction mixture was extracted with CH 2Cl2 (5 mL´3). The combined Direct Formylation of Enol Ethers organic solution was washed with water (3 mL), sat. NaCl (aq) (3 mL), dried over Na 2 SO 4(s) , and concentrated to give the crude oily product. The crude product was analyzed with mass spectroscopy (FAB): m/z 129 [M + H] + , 101, 73; HRMS [M + H] + calcd for C 7 H 13 O 2 , 129.0916, found 129.0917.