Magnesium Bromide-Promoted Room-Temperature Cannizzaro Reaction

Significance

The Cannizzaro reaction may serve as an easy method for the preparation of alcohols as well as acids, esters or amides from aldehydes, lacking an α-proton. The classic conditions of the Cannizzaro reaction are, however, too drastic to be used generally. This method offers a very mild alternative for the classical variant of this reaction, so that the conditions should be compatible with important functional groups. The protocol is operationally simple and the reagents are quite inexpensive. This approach can probably be further developed for the direct preparation of amides and esters from the corresponding aldehydes.