Ester pyrolysis

Ester pyrolysis in organic chemistry is a vacuum pyrolysis reaction converting esters containing a β-hydrogen atom into the corresponding carboxylic acid and the alkene. The reaction is an Ei elimination and operates in a syn fashion.

Examples include the synthesis of acrylic acid from ethyl acrylate at 590 °C, the synthesis of 1,4-pentadiene from 1,5-pentanediol diacetate at 575 °C or the construction of a cyclobutene framework at 700 °C


 * [[Image:Ester pyrolysis.png|600 px|An example of ester pyrolosis. [[Ethyl acrylate]] decomposes into acrylic acid and ethene (ethylene) gas at 590°C.]]