The arylation of acrylic acid: a catalytic synthesis in water adapted for the practical laboratory

Abstract

Organic synthesis in water has become a relevant topic that needs to be transferred to the experimental chemistry courses. In this work, we have adapted, to a teaching laboratory, the synthesis in water of two derivatives of the cinnamic acid, which are obtained by a palladium-catalyzed coupling Heck reaction. The suggested experiments prove that the replacement of an organic solvent by water can be advantageous in terms of efficiency and cost.