Brønsted Acid Catalyzed α‐Alkylation of Aldehydes with Diaryl Methyl Alcohols

Abstract

A proton does the two jobs: Brønsted acids alone catalyze the α-alkylation of aldehydes with diaryl alcohols. In this type of transformation, the acid-catalysis approach offers a broader substrate scope compared to the previously used enamine catalysis methods. The acid plays two important roles: one is to mediate the alcohol dehydration for carbocation formation; the other is to accelerate the rate-determining aldehyde enolization (see scheme). Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.