title: Efficient allylation of aldehydes promoted by carboxylic acids.
abstract: A variety of carboxylic acids have been screened for mediating the allylation of aldehydes with allytributyltin in different solvents. A novel, general, and practical method of allylation of aldehydes promoted by carboxylic acids under mild reaction conditions has been developed. Among them, p-nitrobenzoic acid afforded high to quantitative yields of the homoallylic alcohol products, and can be easily recovered after workup by aqueous HCl. Glyoxylic acid self-catalyzed the allylation without adding any other promoter or catalyst to give the corresponding allylation product in good yield. The regioselectivity of the crotylation of aldehydes is tunable by controlling the acidity of the carboxylic acids. The crotylation of aldehydes produced the alpha-adduct as major products in moderate to good yields with CF(3)CO(2)H as a promoter. A possible mechanism for the allylation is also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Modern Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 354 FengLin Lu, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Gui-long
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhao