Flow Dehydration and Hydrogenation of Allylic Alcohols: Application to the Waste-Free Synthesis of Pristane

Abstract

Hydroxy-substituted sulfonic acid functionalized silica (HO-SAS) in combination with THF containing a small amount of water as a solvent proved to be a reliable system for the dehydration of allylic alcohols. This process generally caused dehydration within 1 min through a column reactor charged with HO-SAS. The flow dehydration was sequenced by flow hydrogenation, which resulted in the synthesis of pristane. A scalable flow synthesis of pristane was successfully performed and afforded 10 g of pristane after an operation of 2 h. We also performed dehydration and hydrogenation by using a mixed column of HO-SAS and 10 % Pd/C.