ChemInform Abstract: 3-Aryl-3-butenoic Acids and Their Esters: Practical Synthesis from Diketene by the Palladium-Catalyzed Grignard Coupling Reaction and Application as Monomers for the Radical Copolymerization with Styrene.

Abstract

Treatment of arylmagnesium bromide with an equimolar amount of zinc chloride followed by the reaction with diketene in the presence of a catalytic amount of PdCl2(PPh3)2 provided an improved synthetic method for 3-aryl-3-butenoic acids in a large scale. Application as a monomer for the substituted polystyrenes is exemplified by the copolymerization of methyl 3-phenyl-3-butenoate with styrene.