title: The Biginelli Reaction Is a Urea-Catalyzed Organocatalytic Multicomponent Reaction.
abstract: The recently developed artificial force induced reaction (AFIR) method was applied to search systematically all possible multicomponent pathways for the Biginelli reaction mechanism. The most favorable pathway starts with the condensation of the urea and benzaldehyde, followed by the addition of ethyl acetoacetate. Remarkably, a second urea molecule catalyzes nearly every step of the reaction. Thus, the Biginelli reaction is a urea-catalyzed multicomponent reaction. The reaction mechanism was found to be identical in both protic and aprotic solvents.
authors.affiliation: †Nanoscience and Technology Program, Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.|‡Fukui Institute for Fundamental Chemistry (FIFC), Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8103, Japan.
authors.forename: Maneeporn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Puripat
authors.affiliation: ‡Fukui Institute for Fundamental Chemistry (FIFC), Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8103, Japan.
authors.forename: Romain
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramozzi
authors.affiliation: ‡Fukui Institute for Fundamental Chemistry (FIFC), Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8103, Japan.
authors.forename: Miho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hatanaka
authors.affiliation: §Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand.
authors.forename: Waraporn
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Parasuk
authors.affiliation: †Nanoscience and Technology Program, Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.|∥Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
authors.forename: Vudhichai
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Parasuk
authors.affiliation: ‡Fukui Institute for Fundamental Chemistry (FIFC), Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8103, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Morokuma