Catalytic Hydration of Terminal Alkenes to Primary Alcohols

摘要

Direct catalytic hydration of terminal alkenes to primary alcohols would be an inexpensive route to industrially useful alcohols and a convenient synthetic route for the synthesis of terminals alcohols in general. The reaction between trans-PtHCl(PMe3)2 (where Me = CH3) and sodium hydroxide in a one-to-one mixture of water and 1-hexene yields a species that, at 60 C and in the presence of the phase-transfer catalyst benzyltriethylammonium chloride, catalyzes selective hydration of 1-hexene to n-hexanol at a rate of 6.9 + or - 0.2 turnovers per hour.