Synthesis of the carbocyclic skeleton of abyssomicins C and D

Amides are synthesized by treating carboxylic acids with amines in the presence of dehydrating agents like dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC).
The DCC-promoted synthesis of amides begins with the protonation of DCC by carboxylic acid. The protonation makes it a better acceptor. Next, the addition of carboxylate to the protonated carbodiimide gives a reactive acylating agent.
Subsequently, the amine acts as a nucleophile that attacks the acylating agent to form a tetrahedral intermediate. In the...

Malonic ester synthesis is a method to obtain α substituted carboxylic acids from ꞵ-diesters such as diethyl malonate and alkyl halides.

Structure of Carboxylic Acid Derivatives
Carboxylic acid derivatives contain an acyl group attached to a heteroatom such as chlorine, oxygen, or nitrogen. The carbonyl carbon and oxygen are both sp2-hybridized with an unhybridized p orbital.
The three sp2 orbitals of the carbonyl carbon form three σ bonds, one each with the carbonyl oxygen, the α carbon, and the heteroatom, whereas the other two sp2 orbitals of the carbonyl oxygen are occupied by the lone pairs. Further, the unhybridized p...

α-Substituted ketones or aldehydes can be synthesized from enamines by the Stork enamine reaction, named after its pioneer Gilbert Stork. Enamines are useful synthetic intermediates where the lone pair on nitrogen is in conjugation with the C=C bond. They resemble enolate ions, as the resonance forms of both species have a nucleophilic α carbon.

Just like β-keto acids—which upon thermal decarboxylation form ketones—β-dicarboxylic acids undergo decarboxylation to generate monocarboxylic acids with the liberation of carbon dioxide.

Diels–Alder reactions between cyclic dienes locked in an s-cis configuration and dienophiles yield bridged bicyclic products.