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Reactions “on water” offer ease of product isolation and may be substantially faster than the same reactions performed in organic solvents. The cover picture shows the time course of an ene reaction between (S)‐β‐pinene and diethyl azodicarboxylate performed on water. The insoluble reactants float on water, whereas the product descends under the water layer and is isolated as a colorless oil. For more details on these reactions, see the Communication by K. B. Sharpless and co‐workers on page 3275 ff.
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Narayan et al. (2005) studied this question.
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