Catalytic Mitsunobu Reactions
Yerassyl Alimbayev
Department of Chemistry, School of Science and Technology, Nazarbayev University,
Astana, Kazakhstan
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
Even though that it is almost 50 years past from fist discovery of Mitsunobu reaction, it is still
challenging to apply this coupling in wide scope due to severe drawbacks. Contamination of
final product with unwanted byproducts and usage of toxic and explosive reactants such as
diethyl azo dicarboxylate (DEAD) are the main obstacles that are met during Mitsunobu
reaction. However, various research groups design alternative reagents, novel separation
techniques and new catalytic systems each year. This work describes the improvements in
Mitsunobu coupling and analyses catalytic systems that effectively fights with drawbacks of
reaction. Catalytic system is the system in which product recovery is facilitated by one of the
reagents that synthesizes difficult to separate byproduct as a catalyst. The scheme provided
below describes one the most recent catalytic systems that was discovered in last years. This
work also discusses yields, strengths and weaknesses of such systems.