We demonstrate an iridium-catalyzed alkylation of ketones with alcohols, which enables
one-step access to donepezil, cyclic ketones, and linear ketones in high yields. A
scale-up experiment shows the excellent practicability of this protocol. Comparative
experiments show that a small amount of water is beneficial to the improvement of
product yield.
Key words
iridium-catalyzed - borrowing hydrogen - α-alkylation - Donepezil
