Benzyl and allyl ethers have been cleaved readily on treatment with AlCl3 and N,N-dimethylaniline to give parent alcohols in high yields. Comparisons of N,N-dimethylaniline and anisole are also described.
A combination system of AlCl3–N,N-dimethylaniline was found to cleave benzylethers readily to give parent alcohols in excellent yields. The system also cleaved allyl as well as methyl ethers. Numerous functional groups such as benzoyloxy, phenylthio, and olefinic double bond were not affected. Comparisons of AlCl3–N,N-dimethylaniline and AlCl3–anisole were described.
A chemometric process consisting in measuring the reactivity of a set of substrates under standardized and complementary reaction conditions was run to evaluate the possibility of building a coherent database that would give a general overview of the selectivity of a variety of catalysts. This systematic experimental approach was applied to the hydrogenolysis of O-benzyl ether compounds. Analysis of