Transition metals catalyzing decarboxylative alkenylation between cinnamic acids and alcohols

Heterogeneous catalysis is of great importance in organic chemistry from the point of view of its practicality and its use within green chemistry.1 In the last few years, a series of metal-catalyzed have been used in several organic reactions to form C-C bonds. An example is the decarboxylative coupling of cinnamic acids with alcohols, a useful route towards the synthesis of allyl alcohol derivates, which are important to prepare a lot of versatile organic compounds.2-4 Based in previous works, we studied the ability of three transition metals, Cu, Ni and Fe to catalyze decarboxylative alkenylation between cinnamic acids and alcohols. We obtained moderate to good yields using Cu powder catalyst and observed the influence of a variety of cinnamic acids bearing electron-withdrawing and donating substituents, as well as the reactivity of a series of aryl and alkyl alcohols present in our laboratory.