Radical induced disproportionation of alcohols assisted by iodide under acidic conditions

Abstract

The disproportionation of alcohols without an additional reductant and oxidant to simultaneously form alkanes and aldehydes/ketones represents an atom-economical transformation. However, only limited methodologies have been reported, and they suffer from a narrow substrate scope or harsh reaction conditions. Herein, we report that alcohol disproportionation can proceed with high efficiency catalyzed by iodide under acidic conditions. This method exhibits high functional group tolerance including aryl alcohol derivatives with both electron-withdrawing and electron-donating groups, furan ring alcohol derivatives, allyl alcohol derivatives, and dihydric alcohols. Under the optimized reaction conditions, a 49% yield of 5-methyl furfural and a 49% yield of 2,5-diformylfuran were obtained simultaneously from 5-hydroxymethylfurfural. An initial mechanistic study suggested that the hydrogen transfer during this redox disproportionation occurred through the inter-transformation of HI and I₂. Radical intermediates were involved during this reaction.