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Zinc-catalyzed dehydrogenative coupling of primary alcohols and secondary/benzyl phosphine oxides for alkene
Jinyan Li1, Changxu Ye1, Shuang-Xi Gu2
1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hainan University, Hainan Provincial Key Lab of Fine Chem, Haikou, Hainan 570228, China. lichunya@hainanu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
A zinc-catalyzed method has been developed for the direct conversion of primary alcohols into alkenes under acceptorless dehydrogenation conditions. Utilizing a simple and Earth-abundant zinc catalyst, this approach enables the dehydrogenative coupling of primary alcohols with either diphenylphosphine oxide (to generate symmetric alkenes) or benzyl phosphine oxides (to generate asymmetric alkenes), affording a diverse range of alkenes in moderate to high yields with (E)-selectivity. This strategy provides a promising facile route for alkene synthesis directly from readily accessible alcohols, as evidenced by gram-scale reactions and the preparation of the biologically active compounds DMU-212 and resveratrol.
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