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Updated: Jan 11, 2026

Retropinacol/Cross-pinacol Coupling Reactions - A Catalytic Access to 1,2-Unsymmetrical Diols
Published on: April 4, 2014
Low-valent cobalt catalyzed direct dehydroxylative cross-coupling of benzyl alcohols with aryl-chlorides
Prashant S Shinde1, Valmik S Shinde1,2, Magnus Rueping1
1KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Thuwal 23955-6900 Saudi Arabia magnus.rueping@kaust.edu.sa.
Abstract:
The direct functionalization of alcohols via C-O bond cleavage is a synthetically valuable but challenging transformation. In this work, we report a reductive C(sp3)-C(sp2) cross-coupling reaction between benzyl alcohols and a broad range of aryl chlorides. The success of this transformation is attributed to the development of low-coordinate cobalt/bipyridine complexes, which enable the selective conversion of benzyl alcohols into the corresponding diarylmethanes, while minimizing undesired homocoupling of either the benzyl alcohol or aryl chlorides.
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