Syntheses of 3-Hydroxy-4-methyl-3-cyclobutene-1,2-dione (Methylmoniliformin)
SummaryNew routes to 3-hydroxy-4-methyl-3-cyclobutene-1,2-dione (9), the lowest homologue of the mycotoxine moniliformin are described. A common feature of all pathways is the synthesis of methylcyclobutanes having the oxidation level 6. Precursors, which are easily transformed to 9 by acid catalyzed hydrolysis, include [2 + 21-cycloadducts of in situ generated methyl ketene to tetraethoxyethylene and [2 + 21-photocycloadducts of dichlorovinylenecarbonate with 1,l-dichloro-1-propene. The acid hydrolysis of [2 + 21-cycloadducts of chlorotrifluoroethylene to N, N-diethyl-1-propynylamine yields the diethylamide of 9 (= 22) in 50% overall yield. In addition, a convenient one-pot-two-steps synthesis of a new electronrich ethylene, 1, 1 ,2-triethoxy-2-trimethylsilyloxy-ethylene (ll), is described.