Switchable β-alkylation of secondary alcohols with primary alcohols by a well-defined cobalt catalyst

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/acs.organomet.1c00147

β-alkylation of secondary alcohols with primary alcohols to selectively generate alcohols by a well-defined Co catalyst is presented. Remarkably, a low catalyst loading of 0.7 mol % can be employed for the reaction. More significantly, this study represents the first Co-catalyzed switchable alcohol/ketone synthesis by simply manipulating the reaction parameters. In addition, the transformation is environmentally friendly, with water as the only byproduct.