LAUSR

Abstract During the development of a palladium catalyzed C–H activation cross-coupling reaction involving acyl halides, it was noted that palladium(II) acetate catalyzes the acylative cleavage of tetrahydrofuran (used as a solvent) at room temperature to afford the corresponding 4-chlorobutyl ester derivative. After optimization, the reaction was shown to work well with epoxides, oxetane and tetrahydrofuran, but only barely with oxanes at room temperature. Acyclic ethers systematically failed to react under similar conditions, but underwent complete conversion in a microwave reactor at 100 °C.