• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.1834-1838
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• 2012

A facile route for the synthesis of dimethyl glutarate (DMG) from cyclobutanone and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) in the presence of solid base catalysts has been developed. It was found that the intermediate carbomethoxycyclobutanone (CMCB) was produced from cyclobutanone with DMC in the first step, and then CMCB was further converted to DMG by reacting with a methoxide group. The role of the basic catalysts can be mainly ascribed to the activation of cyclobutanone $via$ the abstraction of a proton in the ${\alpha}$-position by base sites, and solid bases with moderate strength, such as MgO, favor the formation of DMG.