The preparation of a new "safety catch" ester linker for solid-phase synthesis

A new "safety catch" linker for esters has been synthesized on polystyrene resin. This 2-tert-butoxyphenol resin 10 may be acylated to give a relatively stable ester that will allow nucleophilic chemistry without reaction at the linking ester group. Removal of the tert-butyl group with acid unmasks a highly reactive 2-hydroxyphenyl ester that reacts readily with nucleophiles to cause release of the product from the resin. This sequence has been exemplified by acylating the resin with various bromo acids, carrying out nucleophilic displacements with thiols, phenols, or amines, activating the ester with trifluoroacetic acid and cleaving from the resin with amines to give the (nucleophile) substituted carboxamides in high yield and purity. Kinetic studies with a model ester revealed half-lives for reaction with morpholine of 119 h for the tert-butoxyphenyl ester and 1 min for the corresponding phenol.