Highly practical iron-catalyzed C–O cleavage reactions

Zusammenfassung

Facile iron-catalyzed cleavage of various allyl, cinnamyl and benzyl C-O linkages has been effected in the presence of ethylmagnesium chloride. The protocol is operationally simple (xylene-THF, r.t., 1 h), requires low catalyst loading (1 mol% FeCl2) and tolerates halides, esters, amines, ethers and olefins. The allyl moiety is converted to volatile hydrocarbons which renders laborious product separation unnecessary.