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The Biginelli Reaction Is a Urea-Catalyzed Organocatalytic Multicomponent Reaction
Maneeporn Puripat1,2, Romain Ramozzi2, Miho Hatanaka2
1†Nanoscience and Technology Program, Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
Abstract:
The recently developed artificial force induced reaction (AFIR) method was applied to search systematically all possible multicomponent pathways for the Biginelli reaction mechanism. The most favorable pathway starts with the condensation of the urea and benzaldehyde, followed by the addition of ethyl acetoacetate. Remarkably, a second urea molecule catalyzes nearly every step of the reaction. Thus, the Biginelli reaction is a urea-catalyzed multicomponent reaction. The reaction mechanism was found to be identical in both protic and aprotic solvents.
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