A Green Synthesis and a Chemical Study of the Coumarin, 1-(2-Hydroxy- 2-methyl-2H-chromen-3yl)ethanone

Coumarins are a class of natural and synthetic products with a wide variety of applications in different fields. Due to the general importance of coumarins, the objective of this work is to further develop the chemistry of 1-(2-hydroxy-2-methyl-2H-chromen-3yl)ethanone, 1, a potentially useful and versatile coumarin but an under-reported compound in the literature. This work describes a green preparation of 1 in the absence of solvents and acids, thereby eliminating byproducts, normally obtained in classical procedures, and a mechanistic study of the reactions of 1 with nucleophiles. In addition, we report the characterisation of 1-(2-ethoxy-2-methyl-2H-chromen-3-yl)ethanone 2, via X-ray crystallography and 2D NMR spectra.