Catalyst in Chemistry
Indium chloride is a Lewis acid catalyst in organic reactions such as Friedel-Crafts acylations and Diels-Alder reactions. As an example of the latter The reaction proceeds at room temperature, with 1 mole% catalyst loading in an acetonitrile-water solvent mixture. The first step is a Knoevenagel condensation between the barbituric acid and the aldehyde, the second step is a reverse electron-demand Diels-Alder reaction.
which is a multicomponent reaction of N,N'-dimethyl-barbituric acid, benzaldehyde and ethyl vinyl ether. With catalyst the reported chemical yield is 90% and the percentage trans isomer is 70%. Without the catalyst added the yield drops to 65% with 50% trans product.
Read more about this topic: Indium(III) Chloride
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