Allylic alcohols 1-16 react with hexachloroacetone/triphenylphosphine in less than 20 min at 10-15" C to produce excellent yields of the corresponding chlorides. Isolation is accomplished simply by flash distillation. The conversion occurs with total preservation of double bond geometry and with> 99% inversion of configuration for optically active alcohol 8. All of the primary and secondary alcohols give predominantly the unrearranged ...
