Cross-coupling of aryl aldehydes and benzyl chlorides enabled by dual N-heterocyclic carbene/cobalt catalysis

The Friedel–Crafts acylation reactions involve the addition of an acyl group to an aromatic ring. These reactions proceed via electrophilic aromatic substitution by employing an acyl chloride and a Lewis acid catalyst such as aluminum chloride to form aryl ketone.

Friedel–Crafts reactions were developed in 1877 by the French chemist Charles Friedel and the American chemist James Crafts. Friedel–Crafts alkylation refers to the replacement of an aromatic proton with an alkyl group via electrophilic aromatic substitution. A Lewis acid catalyst such as aluminum chloride reacts with an alkyl halide to form a carbocation. The resulting carbocation then reacts with the aromatic ring and undergoes a series of electron rearrangements before giving the...

Introduction
Like alkenes, alkynes can be reduced to alkanes in the presence of transition metal catalysts such as Pt, Pd, or Ni. The reaction involves two sequential syn additions of hydrogen via a cis-alkene intermediate.

Birch reduction uses solvated electrons as reducing agents. The reaction converts benzene to 1,4-cyclohexadiene. The reaction proceeds by the transfer of a single electron to the ring to form a benzene radical anion. This anion is highly basic—it abstracts a proton from the alcohol to form a cyclohexadienyl radical. Another single electron transfer gives the cyclohexadienyl anion. A proton transfer from the alcohol forms 1,4-cyclohexadiene. Since this reduction occurs via radical anion...

The radical dimerization of ketones or aldehydes gives vicinal diols through a pinacol coupling reaction. However, the behavior of titanium metals used for the reaction as a source of electrons is unusual. When the reaction is carried out in the presence of titanium, diols can be isolated at low temperatures. Else titanium further reacts with diols, forming alkenes through the McMurry reaction.

Benzaldehyde, like formaldehyde, lacks an α hydrogen and cannot enolize to form an enolate. Hence, the reaction of benzaldehyde with a ketone in the presence of an aqueous base forms a single crossed product. This reaction is referred to as Claisen–Schmidt condensation.
As the self-condensation of ketones is generally not favored in basic conditions, the self-condensed products do not form in the reaction between ketones and benzaldehyde. The general reaction of Claisen–Schmidt...