Understanding the efficacy of<i>N,N</i>-dimethylformamide and oxalyl chloride combination as chemoselective<i>O</i>-formylating agent: An unified experimental and theoretical study
efficient synthetic protocol for the O-formylation of a wide range of aromatic hydroxyl/phenolic substrates using an N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and oxalyl chloride [(COCl)2] combination in dichloromethane (DCM) as solvent at ambient temperature. The DMF/(COCl)2 combination was found to be highly chemoselective for the aromatic/phenolic hydroxyl group over aliphatic hydroxyl or aromatic amine/thiol