A mild and efficient process for the 1, 4-addition of thiols and benzeneselenols to various α, β-unsaturated ketones using a catalytic amount of CAN with excellent product yields is described. This inexpensive, nontoxic, and readily available catalytic ceric (IV) ammonium nitrate system efficiently catalyzes conjugate addition reactions between thiol derivatives and various α, β-unsaturated ketones under solvent-free conditions. A plausible ...
