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A compound with the grouping $\mathrm{R}-\mathrm{C}(=\mathrm{O})-\mathrm{O}-\mathrm{C}(=\mathrm{O})-R\prime$. A carboxylate-derived leaving group can be expelled during nucleophilic acyl substitution.

amide ion removes a methyl-side alpha proton of pinacolone. The C–H electrons form the enolate C=C bond as the carbonyl pi pair moves onto oxygen; ammonia is formed. The tert-butyl-side alpha carbon has no hydrogen, fixing the ordinary enolate regiochemistry.

The carbon end of D attacks the acyl chloride carbonyl carbon. Move the C=O pi pair onto oxygen, then collapse the tetrahedral intermediate with chloride departure. This nucleophilic acyl substitution gives $\mathrm{tCO}-\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_2-\mathrm{COt}$ and constructs the bond between the original enolate methylene and the incoming carbonyl. The observed product requires carbon acylation, rather than an O-acyl enol ester. A further equivalent of D removes the much more acidic central proton of the new 1,3-diketone, generating its extensively delocalized enolate and returning that second D equivalent to pinacolone. Aqueous acid workup protonates the product enolate; keto–enol equilibration gives the conjugated, internally stabilized by a hydrogen bond enol observed by NMR. The acyl chloride contributes its entire pivaloyl group; neither tert-butyl group is lost.

hydroxide attacks an ester carbonyl to form a tetrahedral intermediate. Collapse expels ethoxide, and acid–base transfer gives the carboxylate and ethanol. Repeating this nucleophilic acyl substitution at the other ester produces the malonate dianion; acid workup gives $\mathrm{H}{\mathrm{O}}_2\mathrm{C}-\mathrm{C}(\mathrm{L}{)}_2-\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{O}}_2\mathrm{H}$, with $L=\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{CH}=\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_2$ as defined above.

On heating, one carboxylic acid group is lost through a six-membered cyclic proton-transfer/bond-cleavage arrangement. A carbonyl oxygen of the retained group accepts the proton from the departing carboxyl OH as its C–C bond breaks and carbon dioxide forms; electron redistribution gives the enol-like form of the retained acid. proton transfer/tautomerization then producesThe net decarboxylation is ${\mathrm{C}}_9{\mathrm{H}}_{12}{\mathrm{O}}_4\to {\mathrm{C}}_8{\mathrm{H}}_{12}{\mathrm{O}}_2+\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{O}}_2$. The central carbon gains a hydrogen, both allyl substituents survive, and only one carboxyl group is removed. It would be incorrect to draw hydrolysis directly giving the final acid without accounting for this carbon loss. The favourable cyclic pathway is characteristic of malonic acid decarboxylation.

Basic methanol exchanges the ester alkoxy group while retaining the acetal; dilute aqueous acid removes the acetal while retaining the ethyl ester on the stated reaction timescale. An acetal lacks an electrophilic carbonyl and is stable to ordinary base: expelling methoxide directly would require a poor leaving group. The ester can instead undergo nucleophilic acyl substitution through a carbonyl-derived tetrahedral intermediate.

Under acid, protonating an acetal oxygen converts an alkoxy substituent into departing methanol, and the resulting oxocarbenium is stabilized by its remaining oxygen. Water then drives acetal hydrolysis toward the aldehyde. Ester hydrolysis is also possible under acid, but is slower under the conditions implied by the product data. The retained ethyl group and six distinct carbon-13 NMR environments support E rather than the carboxylic acid that prolonged hydrolysis could produce.

An aromatic–aliphatic polyamide and methanol are formed. Let $\mathrm{Ar}=p\text{-}{\mathrm{C}}_6{\mathrm{H}}_4-{\mathrm{C}}_6{\mathrm{H}}_4\text{-}p$. The polymer repeat unit isEach amide linkage comes from nucleophilic acyl substitution: an amine attacks an ester carbonyl, the tetrahedral intermediate expels methoxide, and proton transfer produces methanol. There are approximately $2n$ molecules of methanol for $n$ complete repeat units in a long chain; the precise finite-chain count depends on its end groups. Removal of methanol drives this step-growth polymerization.

The first two operations invert the allylic hydroxyl group. Triphenylphosphine adds to the azodicarboxylate, generating the reagent pair that converts the alcohol into an alkoxyphosphonium leaving group. Benzoate displaces it with inversion at carbon, giving the inverted benzoate ester. Methoxide then cleaves that ester by nucleophilic acyl substitution, retaining the newly inverted carbon–oxygen stereochemistry because cleavage occurs at the acyl group, not by substitution at the stereogenic carbon.

The inverted allylic alcohol exchanges with the orthoacetate under acid catalysis. Ethanol loss produces an allyl ketene acetal, schematically $\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_2=\mathrm{C}(\mathrm{OEt})-\mathrm{O}-(\mathrm{allyl})$. A six-membered suprafacial Johnson-Claisen rearrangement breaks the allylic C–O bond, shifts the ring alkene by one position and forms the new bond from the original alkene terminus to the ketene-acetal CH${}_2$. The result is the $-\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{O}}_2\mathrm{Et}$ substituent at the carbon that was the remote end of the original double bond. A chair-like transition state placing the larger substituents away from axial crowding explains the stereochemical transfer; the inverted alcohol configuration selects the corresponding face.

Finally, TiCl${}_4$ activates the anomeric methoxy group and methoxide departure creates an oxocarbenium ion. Hydride transfer from triethylsilane replaces that methoxy substituent by hydrogen. The ring oxygen and pendant OTBS group remain intact. The sequence is inversion, stereospecific allylic rearrangement, then reductive removal of the anomeric methoxy group, rather than direct reduction or hydrolysis of the ester introduced by the Claisen step.

The surface carboxylic acid is less reactive toward direct nucleophilic acyl substitution: hydroxide is a poor leaving group, and an amine initially tends to form an ammonium carboxylate salt. An alcohol also does not normally give rapid, quantitative ester formation merely by mixing with the acid.

Conversion to an acyl chloride activates the carbonyl and provides chloride as a substantially better leaving group. Amine or alcohol attack can then form a tetrahedral intermediate followed by elimination and proton transfer, giving the grafted amide or ester. Other coupling or esterification methods are possible; acid-chloride activation supplies the efficient route used in this scheme. Surface functionalization with the corresponding alkylamine and diol was demonstrated in the underlying carbon-material study.^[ref]