This website uses cookies to give you the best user experience. If you continue
without changing your settings we'll assume you are happy to receive all RSC cookies.
You can change your cookie settings by navigating to our Privacy and Cookies page and following the instructions. These instructions
are also obtainable from the privacy link at the bottom of any RSC page.
Boronic acid catalysis (BAC) was applied to the 1,3-transposition of allylic alcohols and the related Meyer–Schuster rearrangement of propargylic alcohols using highly electron deficient polyfluoroarylboronic acids as catalysts under mild metal-free conditions. A wide range of synthetically useful products are formed in E:Z selectivities superior to that of metal-catalyzed methods. A mechanism is proposed involving partial or full ionization into an allylic (or propargylic) carbocation, and additional possibilities for multicatalytic tandem reactions are exemplified.