Practical Approach for Preparation of Unsymmetric Benzils from β-Ketoaldehydes

Libo Ruan, Min Shi, Nian Li, Xu Ding, Fan Yang* and Jie Tang*

*Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China, Email: fyangchem.ecnu.edu.cn, jtangchem.ecnu.edu.cn

L. Ruan, M. Shi, N. Li, X. Ding, F. Yang, J. Tang, Org. Lett., 2014, 16, 733-735.

DOI: 10.1021/ol403762e

---

see article for more reactions

Abstract

An efficient and practical method enables the synthesis of unsymmetric benzils from readily available β-ketoaldehydes via oxidation by sodium hypochlorite, decarboxylation, and chlorination with Cl₂ generated from sodium hypochlorite. Various unsymmetric 1,2-diaryldiketones bearing functional groups have been obtained in very good yields under mild reaction conditions.

see article for more examples

---

---

Key Words

1,2-diketones, sodium hypochlorite

---

ID: J54-Y2014