Hydroxy-assisted catalyst-free Michael addition-dehydroxylation of Baylis-Hillman adducts in poly(ethylene glycol)

Intramolecular hydrogen bonding facilitates nucleophilic addition of sulfones to Baylis-Hillman adducts in a single step to realize the substituted allyl sulfones. The reaction is performed in PEG (400 MW) as solvent, which allows easy solvent recycling.