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Versatile CO2 Transformations into Complex Products: A One-pot Two-step Strategy
Published on: November 9, 2019
Reductive coupling of aldehydes by h(2) s in aqueous solutions, a C--C bond forming reaction of prebiotic interest
Mohammed Kajjout1, Yanek Hebting, Pierre Albrecht
1Laboratoire de Biogéochimie Moléculaire, Université de Strasbourg, Institut de Chimie de Strasbourg, Strasbourg.
Abstract:
We report here a novel reductive coupling reaction of conjugated, non- or poorly enolizable aldehydes induced by H(2) S and operative in aqueous solutions under prebiotically relevant conditions. This reaction leads from retinal to β-carotene, and from benzylic aldehydes to the corresponding diarylethylenes. This novel reaction also opens a new potentially prebiotic pathway leading from glyoxylic acid to various compounds that are involved in the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle. This C--C bond forming reaction of prebiotic interest might have been operative, notably, in the sulfide-rich environments of hydrothermal vents, which have been postulated as possible sites for the first steps of organic chemical evolution.
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