Results To obtain evidence for the possible intermediacy of dichlorocarbene, the sodium salt of diethyl methylmalonate (I) was prepared in dry l, &dimethoxyethane, and to this solution there was added an equivalent amount of sodium trichloroacetate (known to undergo thermal decomposition to dichlorocarbene). s The resulting solution was refluxed for two hours and on filtration followed by fractional distillation there was obtained in 34% yield a ...
