Sulfuric acid catalyzed addition of β-dicarbonyl compounds to alcohols under conventional heating and microwave-assisted conditions

The highly efficient direct addition of β-dicarbonyl compounds to secondary alcohols has been achieved using one of the cheapest acids, H2SO4, as the catalyst. For a series of β-dicarbonyl compounds and various secondary alcohols, the addition reactions all complete in 5 min with high yields both under the conventional heating condition and under the microwave heating condition. The comparison of the results obtained from the microwave heating condition with those obtained from the conventional heating condition shows that no obvious specific or nonthermal microwave effects exist in the microwave-assisted addition reactions.