Direct arylation/alkylation/magnesiation of benzyl alcohols in the presence of Grignard reagents via Ni-, Fe-, or Co-catalyzed sp3 C–O bond activation

DG Yu, X Wang, RY Zhu, S Luo, XB Zhang…

Index: Yu, Da-Gang; Wang, Xin; Zhu, Ru-Yi; Luo, Shuang; Zhang, Xiao-Bo; Wang, Bi-Qin; Wang, Lei; Shi, Zhang-Jie Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012 , vol. 134, # 36 p. 14638 - 14641

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Citation Number: 48

Abstract

Direct application of benzyl alcohols (or their magnesium salts) as electrophiles in various reactions with Grignard reagents has been developed via transition metal-catalyzed sp3 C– O bond activation. Ni complex was found to be an efficient catalyst for the first direct cross coupling of benzyl alcohols with aryl/alkyl Grignard reagents, while Fe, Co, or Ni catalysts could promote the unprecedented conversion of benzyl alcohols to benzyl Grignard ...