Preparation of methyl esters

Abstract

b The use of 2,2-dimethoxypropane (DMP) in preparation of methyl esters has been reported by Lorette and Brown (1).This reagent reacts very rapidly with water in the presence of strong acid to form methanol and acetone and thus can act as a water scavenger in esterification of acids with methanol.However, the possibility of direct methylation of acids has not been ruled out.We have modified the conditions described by these authors to speed the esterification and simplify the technique.The changes involve the use of aqueous hydrochloric acid as catalyst and relatively large amounts of reagents.