Patent 7585998 was granted and assigned to Bayer CropScience Limited on September, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention relates to a three-step method for the preparation of alkyl esters of 4,4-difluoroacetoacetic acid in which in the first step alkyl esters of 4-chloro-4,4-difluoroacetic acid are reacted with trialkylphosphites of formula (III)P(OR1)3 (III)in which R1 stands for C1-C4-alkyl, whereby the residues R1 can in each case be the same or different,to form alkyl phosphonates of formula (IV)