2-(1-Methoxycarbonyl-2-phenyleth-1-yl)-1-benzylpyridin-1-ium Bromide
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Table 2. pyridylacetate. Both N-benzylation and a-benzylation take place, but the reaction appears to be difficult to control so in general complex reaction mixtures are obtained. There is one exception though; when the a-benzylated product is left standing at room temperature, only the title compound, which is named incorrectly, is obtained. That is not much to report unless the compound has exceptional properties that can be utilized in chemistry or commercially, for instance to treat Parkinson, which has been mentioned. Such properties are not mentioned at all, but if such exist, publication could be considered if the issues below are addressed in a proper fashion. The manuscript in its present form should not be published.
The following issues have to be addressed before publication should be considered.
a. The name of the compound is wrong. Since it is not named as an ester, but as a pyridine compound, the substituent is a substituted ethyl group-
b. The first four and the last sentences in the abstract do not belong to this section and should be deleted because they don’t report results from this study. A remark: To focus on alkylation in general does not make sense; the focus should be benzylation; but not in the abstract.
c. Line 28: It is wrong to focus on tertiary amines when it is a pyridine that is in focus. Lots of pyridines have been alkylated and even benzylated; that is where the focus should be.
d. Lines 47-50: This is what is worthwhile to report. What is reported in lines 52-85 does not really form the basis for the main observation since the crude was left standing and then it was noticed.
e. The results reported in the Table are not really good, so to call the outcome good (line 87) does not make sense.
f. Which crude is it referred to in line 139?
g. In lines 144-145 the carbon shifts are given with two decimals. That requires tedious calibration of the instrument and consideration of the variation of the shifts with the concentration. Should be only one decimal.
h. Use standard abbreviations for journals in the list of references.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
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