Aqueous medium effects on multi-component reactions

The effect of aqueous media on many organic reactions has been studied, and often those reactions exhibiting pressure acceleration are also accelerated in water. Because some specific examples of the Ugi and Passerini reactions that are inefficient under conventional conditions have been accelerated by pressure, we examined Ugi and Passerini reactions in aqueous solutions, where significant increases in efficiency were observed. These effects were correlated to the cohesive energy density of aqueous solutions.