Direct Addition of Grignards to Acid Chlorides

10 January 2006

Addition of Grignards to acid chlorides often leads to ketones but yields are variable as further reactions may occur. A group at Boehringer  Ingelheim has found that addition of bis (2-dimethylaminoethyl) ether moderates the Grignard’s reactivity to give high yields (X-J Wang et al, Org Lett, 2005, 7, 5593-5595). A wide variety of functional groups are tolerated.