Dramatic Rate Acceleration of Baylis-Hillman Reaction with Fe3O4 Nanoparticles and DBU in Solvent Free Medium

The Baylis-Hillman reaction, i.e., the coupling of aldehydes and activated vinyl compounds, is one of the most important carbon-carbon bond forming reactions in organic synthesis [1,2]. This reaction has attracted the attention of many synthetic organic chemists because the resulting β-hydroxy-α-methylene adducts can be transformed into a variety of natural and unnatural compounds [3]. However, the reaction suffers from poor reaction rates and many research groups have examined a variety of methods to accelerate the reaction. Various methods for the acceleration of Baylis-Hillman reaction have been developed with certain limitations.One of the most important methods is the salt effect using Lewis acid as co-catalyst [4]. In continuation of our interst for Baylis-Hilman adductsand mechanistic studies of this reaction,herein we wish to report our novel methodology for the acceleration of Baylis-Hillman reaction with magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MNPs) and DBU in a solvent free medium (Figure 1).