Chemoselective ester/ether C–O cleavage of methyl anisates by aluminum triiodide

Abstract

The aluminum triiodide mediated chemoselective ester/ether C–O cleavage of methyl anisates was investigated. o-Anisate undergoes ether cleavage at low temperatures in carbon disulfide, cyclohexane and acetonitrile. Further cleavage of the ester group occurs at elevated temperatures to afford salicylic acid. The cleavage of p-anisate is solvent-dependent. In cyclohexane, the ester and ether groups were cleaved non-selectively to give equimolar amounts of p-anisic acid and methyl p-hydroxybenzoate. The ester group was preferentially cleaved in acetonitrile, compared to ether group cleavage in carbon disulfide. The ester cleavage reaction was improved using pyridine as an acid scavenger additive. Reasons for the contrasting reactivity of anisates towards AlI3 were explored, and the methods were applied to cleavage of the tert-butyl ester of acemetacin which gave different products under these conditions.