Abstract
We report the dehydrogenative synthesis of esters from enol ethers using water as the formal oxidant, catalyzed by a newly developed ruthenium acridine-based PNP(Ph)-type complex. Mechanistic experiments and density functional theory (DFT)
studies suggest that an inner-sphere stepwise coupled reaction pathway is operational instead of a more intuitive outer-sphere tandem hydration–dehydrogenation pathway.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1481-1487 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Green chemistry : an international journal and green chemistry resource : GC |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 4 Feb 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 21 Feb 2022 |
Funding
This research was supported by the European Research Council (ERC AdG 692775). DM holds the Israel Matz Professorial Chair of Organic Chemistry. SK acknowledges the Sustainability and Energy Research Initiative (SAERI) of the Weizmann Institute of Science for a research fellowship. JL is thankful to the Feinberg Graduate School, Weizmann Institute of Science, for a Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship. MR acknowledges the Zuckerman STEM Leadership insights Program for a research fellowship. We thank Dr Michael Montag for carefully proofreading the manuscript and providing important insights.