Development of a Catalytic Platform for Nucleophilic Substitution: Cyclopropenone‐Catalyzed Chlorodehydration of Alcohols

Cyclopropenone makes the switch: 2,3-Bis-(p-methoxyphenyl)cyclopropenone is a highly efficient catalyst for the chlorodehydration of 20 diverse alcohol substrates (see scheme; X=Cl). With oxalyl chloride as catalytic activator, this nucleophilic substitution proceeded through cyclopropenium-activated intermediates and resulted in complete stereochemical inversion in substrates with chiral centers. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.