Tributylphosphine or dimethylphenylphosphine (1-5 mol%) catalyzed the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction of 2-cyclopenten-1-one (1) with 1.2 equivalents of formalin proceeded nicely to give 2-hydroxymethyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one (2) within a short period and in an excellent yield. The efficiency of the reaction (yield and time) was strongly dependent on the solvent and the best result was obtained in the case of an aqueous MeOH-CHCl3 solvent system.
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Ito et al. (2005) studied this question.
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