A 2 L round-bottomed flask equipped with an overhead stirrer was charged with methylamine (500mL, 3.48 mol, 30 wt % in EtOH) and EtOH (500 mL) followed by dropwise addition of tert-butylacrylate (100 g, 0.78 mol) over 3 h at 20 -25 °C. The resultant mixture was stirred at rt for 3 h andthen concentrated to dryness to give tert-butyl 3-(methylamino)propanoate (124 g) as a colorless