Copper(II) chloride-catalyzed Glaser oxidative coupling reaction in polyethylene glycol

Polyethylene glycol was shown to be an environmentally benign reaction medium for the copper(II) salt -catalyzed Glaser coupling reaction of terminal alkynes. In particular, oxygen as the sole oxidant worked very well for arylacetylenes even in short reaction time. The product was easily separated by extraction and the catalytic system could be reused four times without significant loss of reactivity.