title: A General and mild catalytic α-alkylation of unactivated esters using alcohols.
abstract: Catalytic α-alkylation of esters with primary alcohols is a desirable process because it uses low-toxicity agents and generates water as the by-product. Reported herein is a NCP pincer/Ir catalyst which is highly efficient for α-alkylation of a broad scope of unactivated esters under mild reaction conditions. For the first time, alcohols alkylate unactivated α-substituted acyclic esters, lactones, and even methyl and ethyl acetates. This method can be applied to the synthesis of carboxylic acid derivatives with diverse structures and functional groups, some of which would be impossible to access by conventional enolate alkylations with alkyl halides.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, 345 Lingling Road, Shanghai 200032 (China).
authors: Le
authors: L
authors: Guo
authors: Xiaochen
authors: X
authors: Ma
authors: Huaquan
authors: H
authors: Fang
authors: Xiangqing
authors: X
authors: Jia
authors: Zheng
authors: Z
authors: Huang
keywords: alcohols; alkylation; homogeneous catalysis; iridium; synthetic methods