Catalytic Friedel-Crafts Reactions of Highly Electronically Deactivated Benzylic Alcohols.
Vuk D VukovićEdward RichmondEléna WolfJoseph MoranPublished in: Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) (2017)
Highly electronically deactivated benzylic alcohols, including those with a CF3 group adjacent to the OH-bearing carbon, undergo dehydrative Friedel-Crafts reactions upon exposure to catalytic Brønsted acid in 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) solvent. Titration and kinetic experiments support the involvement of higher order solvent/acid clusters in catalysis.