Water as a solvent: transition metal catalyzed dehydrogenation of alcohols going green

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry Vol. 51; no. 32; pp. 11987 - 122
• Main Authors: Borthakur, Ishani, Kumari, Saloni, Kundu, Sabuj
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 16.08.2022
• Subjects: Alcohol; Alcohols; Chemical reactions; Chemical synthesis; Dehydrogenation; Ionic liquids; Polyethylene glycol; Solvents; Supercritical fluids; Transition metals
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/d2dt01060g

The long-established practice of using organic solvents in synthetic chemistry is currently becoming a major focus of environmental alarms as many of the chemical wastes are generated in the form of organic solvents. Recently, various alternative solvents have been recognized by the scientific community, including water, ionic liquids, supercritical fluids, glycerol, polyethylene glycol, etc . Among these alternatives, water is unquestionably an ideal solvent as it is abundant, cheap, non-toxic, and non-flammable. In the last few decades, a breakthrough has been achieved in the field of transition metal-catalyzed dehydrogenation of alcohols and the related chemistry for the sustainable synthesis of a wide range of valuable compounds. Although a large number of reports with new potential are published every year following this alcohol dehydrogenation strategy, the utilization of water as a solvent in alcohol dehydrogenation and related coupling reactions is yet to be highlighted properly. This review summarizes the advances in metal-catalyzed dehydrogenative functionalization of alcohols using water as a solvent. This review highlights the advances in transition metal-catalysed dehydrogenative functionalization of alcohols using water as a solvent.