Efficient Deprotection of Phenol Methoxymethyl Ethers Using a Solid Acid Catalyst with Wells-Dawson Structure.docVIP

Molecules 2001, 6, 1006-1011 molecules ISSN 1420-3049 Efficient Deprotection of Phenol Methoxymethyl Ethers Using a Solid Acid Catalyst with Wells-Dawson Structure? G. Romanelli1,2,*, J.C. Autino1, G. Baronetti 3 and H. Thomas2 1 Laboratorio de Estudio de Compuestos Orgánicos (LADECOR), Departamento de Química, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Calles 47 y 115, (1900) La Plata, Argentina. 2 Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Procesos Catalíticos (CINDECA), Departamento de Química, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Calle 47 No 257, (1900) La Plata, Argentina. 3 Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Pabellón de Industrias. (1428) Ciudad Universitaria. Buenos Aires. Argentina. ? This paper was presented at the Fifth Electronic Conference on Synthetic Organic Chemistry (ECSOC- 5), September 1-30, 2001 (Paper A0038). * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-mail: gpr@.ar Received: 27 October 2001 / Accepted: 2 November 2001 / Published: 30 November 2001 Abstract: Deprotection of various phenols from their respective methoxymethyl ethers using an heteropolyacid catalyst was studied. The catalyst was the Wells-Dawson heteropolyacid, used both in bulk or supported on silica. Yields were high to quantitative after less than one hour reaction time and the catalyst was easily recoverable and reusable. Keywords: Protecting groups; methoxymethyl ethers; heteropolyacids; Well-Dawson catalyst; phenols.  Molecules 2001, 6 1007 Introduction Usually, the removal of methoxymethylene protective groups is carried out in liquid phase using mainly sulphuric or hydrochloric acids as catalysts [1-3]. However, the problems associated with the handling and disposal of the inorganic acids, and the environmental and potential hazards of the same have raised interest in the development o