A New Facile Route to Chlorination of Alcohols via Lewis Acid AlCl3

Abstract

Halogenated aluminates AlCl3, applied as efficient chlorination reagent for hydroxyl groups of substitution alcohols is described. Primary and secondary benzylic alcohols could be transformed into corresponding aromatic halides with almost complete conversion and unique selectivity. As chlorination reagent, AlCl3 has an incomparable advantage over others, such as low material cost, commercial availability as well as convenient product isolation.