Novel Synthesis of 2-Methylene-1,3-diactoxy-propane

Abstract

We wish to describle a novel synthesis of 2-methylene-1,3-diacetoxypropane (I)from isobutane. No conveniet synthetic method of (I) is available at present despite of its usefulness in organic synthesis. We have studied the acetoxylation of various olefins by using a palladium mettal catalyst in gas phase and already proposed the mechanism of the formation of vinyl acetate from ethylene(1). When a mixture of isobutene (>99.5%), oxygen and acetic acid was exposed onto the catalyst, (I) and methallyl acetate (II) were formed in good yields with the ratio of approximately1:1.