Electrosynthesis of β‐methylpentadecanedioic acid dimethyl ester

Abstract

Abstractβ‐Methylpentadecanedioic acid dimethyl ester (I) was synthesized electrochemically by Kolbe reaction using β‐methylglutaric acid monomethyl ester (II) and α,ω‐dodecanedioic acid monomethyl ester (III) as starting materials in MeOH solution. Electrolysis was carried out ofr about 4–5 h, when solution pH ≥ 7, followed by extraction with petroleum ether and distillation to obtain a colourless oily product (I) The minimum production cost occurred when the mole ration of II to III was 1:1·38 and unreacted III could be recovered. The product synthesized (I) completely met the requirement of artificially synthesized musk.