In spite of many attempts to synthesize I in which the bases used were sodium hydride, sodium methoxide, sodium amide, metallic sodium, and potassium t-butoxide and the solvents were ether, glyme, benzene, dimethyl sulfoxide, hexamethylphosphoramide, and t- butyl alcohol, the best yield of I was in the 20-25% region (NaH in glyme). Several attempts to make analogs of I in which corresponding esters of cr-bromopropionic and a- ...
