Oxidation of Aldehydes to α,β‐Unsaturated Aldehydes via α‐Chloroaldimines

Abstract

Abstract The oxidation of aldehydes to α,β‐unsaturated aldehydes has been performed by a sequence of reactions involving conversion into aldimines, chlorination at the α‐position to form α‐chloroaldimines, base‐induced dehydrochlorination and hydrolysis. The four‐step transformation can be executed without isolation of the intermediates. This method has been applied to the synthesis of an artificial flavor, i.e. 2‐butyl‐3‐phenylpropenal.