Efficient synthesis of 4-substituted--phthalaldehyde analogues: toward the emergence of new building blocks.

4-Methoxy--phthalaldehyde and 4-hydroxy--phthalaldehyde are potentially useful molecules for fluorimetric analysis of a variety of amines and for the elaboration of complex molecular architectures. Nevertheless, literature generally describes their synthesis in very low yield (below 5%), mainly due to the inefficiency of the last oxidation step. In this paper, we report a reliable synthesis of 4-substituted--phthalaldehyde analogues in 51% overall yield owing to the addition of a protecting step of the unstable key intermediate 4,5-dihydroisobenzofuran-5-ol.