Justine Desroches, Pier Alexandre Champagne, Yasmine Benhassine and Jean-François Paquin
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2015,13, 2243-2246
DOI:
10.1039/C4OB02655A,
Communication
The Friedel–Crafts benzylation of arenes using benzyl alcohols activated in situ with XtalFluor-E is described. A wide range of 1,1-diarylmethanes and 1,1,1-triarylmethanes were prepared under experimentally simple and mild conditions, without the need for a transition metal or a strong Lewis acid. Notably, the reactivity observed demonstrates the potential of XtalFluor-E to induce C–OH bond ionization and SN1 reactivity of benzylic alcohols.
