Protecting groups play an essential role in multistep chemical synthesis. Yet, often strong acids or bases are employed for the deprotection of these functional groups resulting in large amount of waste generation and/or undesired side-reactions. It would be desirable to develop an environmentally-friendly green process for an easy and efficient deprotection strategy for commonly used functional groups. We hereby present a method for the deprotection of various functional groups using water as (green) reactant, catalyst and solvent. The drastic change in chemical and physical properties of water from room temperature to elevated temperatures 150-275�C was used for the selective catalytic deprotection of N-Boc, N-acetyl, O-acetyl and O-Me groups.. This strategy also allows for the easy separation of the product from the reaction mixture, without any additional step of neutralization, upon cooling to room temperature.

Water at elevated temperatures (wet): A reactant, catalyst and solvent in the selective hydrolysis of protecting groups

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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