GENERAL METHOD: Dissolve 4-hydroxycyclohexanone (2.0 mmol) in 3 mL of pyridine at 0 °C. Maintaining this temperature, acetyl chloride (1.5 eq.) was slowly added dropwise over 30 min. After the dropwise addition, the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 12 hours. Upon completion of the reaction, the mixture was directly upsampled onto a silica gel column and purified using fast chromatography (eluent: hexane/ethyl acetate, 1:1 v/v). Finally, 4-oxocyclohexyl acetate (3-16) was obtained in the yields listed in Table 1 as a colorless oil with the purity meeting the analytical requirements.
