aldehydes with phenols. The use of equimolar amounts of reactants led to good to excellent isolated yields of esters. … Therefore, we initiated a study to establish the direct oxidative esterification of aldehydes with phenols, catalyzed by a NHC/iron system using atmospheric O 2 as the terminal oxidant. …
An NHC/iron cooperative catalytic system mediates the aerobic oxidative esterification of aldehydes with phenols. The use of equimolar amounts of reactants led to good to excellent isolated yields of esters.