Titanium-catalysed deoxygenation of benzylic alcohols and lignin model compounds

Abstract

We report a catalytic system for direct deoxygenation of benzylic alcohols by using non-precious precatalyst Cp₂TiCl₂ and 2-MeTHF as solvent. Mechanistic studies showed that the used silane Me(EtO)₂SiH acts both as H-donor and regenerating agent of the active catalytic species. This method tolerates a wide variety of functional and protecting groups and enables sequential deoxygenation–dehalogenation and deoxygenation–hydrogenation reactions. The procedure was successfully applied in the exhaustive reduction of lignin model substrates.