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The addition of water to the acyl carbene function as a whole is a better description for the reaction (a) than the insertion of carbene 1 into the OH bond of water. The enol tautomer 2 of methyl mandelate was shown to be an intermediate. If the photolysis is conducted in 18O-enriched water, 3 is marked exclusively at the α-hydroxyl group.
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Chiang et al. (1991) studied this question.
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