Organocatalytic Chlorination of Alcohols by P(III)/P(V) Redox Cycling

A catalytic system for the chlorination of alcohols under Appel conditions was developed. Benzotrichloride is used as a cheap and readily available chlorinating agent in combination with trioctylphosphane as the catalyst and phenylsilane as the terminal reductant. The reaction has several advantages over other variants of the Appel reaction, e.g., no additional solvent is required and the phosphane reagent is used only in catalytic amounts. In total, 27 different primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl chlorides were synthesized in yields up to 95%. Under optimized conditions, it was also possible to convert epoxides and an oxetane to the dichlorinated products.