Acetolactone (α-acetolactone) is an

organic compound In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. T ...

with formula . It is the smallest member of the

lactone Lactones are cyclic carboxylic esters, containing a 1-oxacycloalkan-2-one structure (), or analogues having unsaturation or heteroatoms replacing one or more carbon atoms of the ring. Lactones are formed by intramolecular esterification of the co ...

family but can also be described as the epoxide of

ethenone In organic chemistry, ethenone is the formal name for ketene, an organic compound with formula or . It is the simplest member of the ketene class. It is an important reagent for acetylations. Properties Ethenone is a highly reactive gas (at ...

. The compound was described in 1997 as a transient species in mass spectrometry experiments. Although acetolactone itself has not been isolated in bulk, the related species bis(trifluoromethyl)acetolactone ((), which has increased electronic stabilisation due to its two

trifluoromethyl The trifluoromethyl group is a functional group that has the formula -CF3. The naming of is group is derived from the methyl group (which has the formula -CH3), by replacing each hydrogen atom by a fluorine atom. Some common examples are trifluoro ...

groups, is known and has a half-life of 8 hours at 25 °C. This compound is prepared by photolysis of bis(trifluoromethyl)malonyl peroxide.Waldemar Adam, Ju-Chao Liu, Oswaldo Rodriguez (1973), ''Bis(trifluoromethyl)acetolactone, a Stable α-Lactone''. J. Org. Chem., volume 38, pages 2269–2270

References

Alpha-lactones Substances discovered in the 1990s {{heterocyclic-stub

See also

References