Jules Yoda^{1, 2,}, Siaka Sosso², Abdoulaye Djandé², Adama Saba²

Coumarin derivatives are an important class of heterocyclic compounds with interesting physical and biological properties. 3-(2-phenyl-oxo-ethoxy)-2H-chromen-2-one is prepared by reacting 2-chloro-1-phenylethanone with 3-hydroxycoumarin in tetrahydrofuran using a suitable base. The structure of the newly obtained compound has been confirmed by conventional analytical methods such as infrared (IR), mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry (NMR). In mass spectrometry, fragmentation was studied in the context of the correlation between the fragmentation process and the value of the electronic charges obtained by the semi-empirical method AM1. This method, recently introduced in the study of mass spectra, allows to improve the explanation of the fragmentation process in ESI-MS and EIMS and even to predict fragment ions. We were able to successfully synthesize the title compound. The proposed structure was elucidated by spectral analysis. Concerning the fragmentation process, a good correlation between the fragmentation pathways and the electronic charges of the atoms was obtained.

3-hydroxycoumarin, 3-(2-phenyl-oxo-ethoxy)-2H-chromen-2-one, AM1, electronic charges, fragmentation