Facile synthesis of α, β-unsaturated esters through a one-pot copper-catalyzed aerobic oxidation-Wittig reaction

Abstract

An efficient one-pot synthesis of α, β-unsaturated esters through the aerobic oxidation – Wittig tandem reaction of alcohols and phosphorous ylide is developed. This new method operates under mild reaction conditions, and uses CuI/TEMPO (TEMPO=2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl) as co-catalyst and air (O2) as the oxidant. It tolerates a wide range of functionalized benzylic alcohol and aliphatic alcohols.