Intermolecular Addition Formation of Unsaturated Ethers and Furans

1 Intermolecular Addition Formation of Unsaturated Ethers and Furans 

The ruthenium-catalyzed direct addition of saturated aliphatic alcohols to non-activated alkynes remains a challenge. Only ally alcohol has been successfully involved in the intermolecular addition to phenylacetylene to produce an ether and the enal resulting from Claisen rearrangement (Equation 10.7) [24]. Thus, in refluxing toluene, in the presence of a catalytic amount of RuCl(tris(pyrazolyl) borate) (pyridine)2, a 1 1 mixture of ally P-styryl ether and 2-phenylpent-4-enal was obtained in 72% overall yield. 

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