Reaction-activated palladium catalyst for dehydrogenation of substituted cyclohexanones to phenols and H ₂ without oxidants and hydrogen acceptors

as the only byproduct. The reaction requires no oxidants or hydrogen acceptors because instead of removing the generated hydrogen with oxidants or hydrogen acceptors, we demonstrated it can be used as a cocatalyst to help power the reaction. This method for phenol synthesis manifests a high atom economy, and is inherently devoid of the complications normally associated with oxidative dehydrogenations.