[cswarth]

Can someone help me figure out the name of this beast?   This is the product of ligating (S)-(+)-α-methoxyphenylacetic acid with an enantiomeric mix of ethyl-3-hydroxybutanoate.

We don't technically need to know the name - the lab manual just calls it a diastereomeric ester - but I would like to put the real name in my report.  The best I have come up with is (ethyl 2-butanoate) 2-methoxy-2-phenyl ethanoate, but I think that is wrong.  I was going with the theory that it is two esters back-to-back, and you name the part of the ester after the oxygen first.  Probably the right name will involve "aceto..." something.

Thanks in advance.

[Dan]

Your naming of the fragments looks OK, though I don't understand where you're getting 2-butanoate from (3-butanoate?). You're not putting the fragments together correctly.

Ethyl butanoate is your parent fragment.

Think about this and try again:

EtCOOEt = ethyl propanoate
CH₂(OH)COOEt = Ethyl 2-hydroxypropanoate [note: not (ethyl 2-propanoate) 2-hydroxide]

similarly:

EtCOO(CH₂)₄COOMe is called Methyl (5-propionyloxy)pentanoate

ie. the substituent is named with an "oxy" suffix, not named as the anion - hydroxy not hydroxide, propionyloxy not propionate, acetoxy (aka ethanoyloxy) not acetate (aka ethanoate).

Does that make sense?

[cswarth]

I think I finally found a semi-authoritative answer.   To convert from a drawing to a IUPAC name I went to
http://www.molport.com/buy-chemicals/find-chemicals
where I drew the molecule.   Then I chose the menu Tools->Naming and asked for the IUPAC name.  

This is what it came up with -

ethyl 3-[(2-methoxy-2-phenylacetyl)oxy]butanoate

[edit - fixed the name]

[Borek]

ACDLABS ChemSketch names molecules as well. And has a free version.

[kreisler]

I think I finally found a semi-authoritative answer.   To convert from a drawing to a IUPAC name I went to
http://www.molport.com/buy-chemicals/find-chemicals
where I drew the molecule.   Then I chose the menu Tools->Naming and asked for the IUPAC name.  

This is what it came up with -

ethyl 3-[(2-methoxy-2-phenylacetyl)oxy]butanoate

[edit - fixed the name]

it can also be solved in chemdraw by using "convert structure to name"