Recently, mild cooperative catalytic activity of phenol derivatives in the Baylis–Hillman reaction with tributylphosphine (Bu 3 P) was reported. 3 Phenol acts as a Brφnstead acid to activate the carbonyl group of an aldehyde and a polarized alkene in the reaction. Thus, we envisioned that the use of phenol in the Baylis–Hillman reaction of N,N-dimethylacrylamide and benzaldehyde could afford the Baylis–Hillman adduct. We examined the reaction of benzaldehyde (1a) ...
