Nano CuO Catalyzed Cross Dehydrogenative Coupling (CDC) of Aldehydes to Anhydrides
An elegant synthesis of carboxylic acid anhydrides has been developed directly from arylaldehydes using CuO nanoparticles as the catalyst and tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as the oxidant. During anhydride formation the reaction proceeds through a double sp2 C–H functionalization of aldehydes to generate two consecutive C–O bonds.