Catalyst-free and solvent-free hydroboration of ketones

Abstract

The hydroboration of a wide range of ketones with pinacolborane can be achieved under catalyst-free and solvent-free conditions to provide the corresponding boronic esters in quantitative yields. A large gram-scale hydroboration of acetophenone with HBpin under the same conditions was also performed to afford the alcohol product in a high yield thus demonstrating the scalability of the newly developed simple protocol.