[limonade]

Something like in the picture. And if I had one, could I do a grignard reaction with phenyl magnesium bromide? Also, could I go about synthesizing, such a bromoaldehyde by something like in the second picture:

I'm trying to do a total synthesis problem and I need to show how I synthesize all my reagents. I appreciate your responses.


Thank you

[orgopete]

I believe bromomethanal is unstable at normal conditions, however if the plan is to react it with a Grignard reagent, why not use something like ethyl formate?

[limonade]

Thank you for your reply and letting me know that it would be unstable under normal conditions. I just wanted to know if it was at all possible, as I took a weird shortcut in my synthesis. Turns out I needed to use an oxirane.

I will look at the problem again and see if I can find an alternate method and use ethyl formate.

Thanks again.

[mjpam]

All the sources I found by doing a Google Books search for formyl bromide say that it is unstable a decays rapidly. As analogue, you might consider the Gatter-Koch formylation, which forms formyl chloride in situ (i.e., as a short-lived intermediate in the reaction mixture) as a combination of carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, and aluminum chloride and the fact that formyl flouride degrades autocatalytically at STP.