Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Decarboxylate alpha keto acid

Filemon - 8-7-2008 at 19:11

Which is the best way for easy Decarboxylate The alpha keto acid?

ScienceSquirrel - 9-7-2008 at 03:15

I think this should be in organic chemistry.


Could you tell us which alpha keto acid you have in mind?

Nicodem - 9-7-2008 at 06:03

Since you say nothing about the nature of the substrate neither decarboxylation to what there certainly is no definitive answer to your question.
This topic was once brought up in another thread. http://sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=9105&p...
There are two products you can obtain by the decarboxylation of alpha-keto carboxylic acids. Thermolysis in the presence of weak bases (N,N-dialkylanilines, N-alkylmorpholines, etc.; for example: Synthesis (1980) 909) gives the corresponding aldehydes:
R-CO-COOH =(Me2NPh, heat)=> R-CHO + CO2
(Thermolysis in neutral or acidic media gives the decarbonylation reaction instead.)
Oxidative decarboxylation gives the corresponding carboxylic acids:
R-CO-COOH =(oxidation)=> R-COOH + CO2
(for example, H2O2/NaOH or perborate like in Tetrahedron , 54 (1998) 9603-9612; or it can be done by enzymatic oxidation with several bacteria species)

PS: Like I already told numerous times: Please post one-line questions in the Beginnings section. I'm moving it there anyway.

Filemon - 10-7-2008 at 06:39

sorry, me misled because I was very tired. I wanted to publish it in organic chemistry. Thank you for the answer. It has been I of utility.

[Edited on 10-7-2008 by Filemon]