Treatment of dimethyl ketene with ethoxyacetylene 1a, 1-ethoxyoct-1-yne 1b, and 1- ethoxytetrade-1-yne 1c afforded the 3-ethoxycyclobutenones 2a–c. Hydrolysis of 2a–c with dilute hydrochloric acid gave the cyclobutane-1, 3-diones 3a–c. The 1H NMR spectra of these compounds indicate that in CDCl3 solution 2, 2-dimethylcyclobutane-1, 3-dione 3a exists as the diketone, whereas the 2, 2, 4-trialkylcyclobutane-1, 3-diones 3b and 3c exist ...
[Kocienski, Philip J.; Pelotier, Beatrice; Pons, Jean-Marc; Prideaux, Heather Journal of the Chemical Society - Perkin Transactions 1, 1998 , # 8 p. 1373 - 1382]