Modern day chemists utilize the Diels Alder reaction for natural product synthesis due to its clean and predictive six membered ring production. We have selected a set of reactions from the literature with the intention of exploring the addition of catalytic agents and their effect on these reactions. Our first trials have been conducted with two aromatic dienes, furan and 2,5-dimethylfuran at a constant temperature, each respectively combined with 3 structurally different dienophiles, <i>N</i>-methylmaleimide, <i>N</i>-phenylmaleimide, and maleic anhydride. Percent conversions of each reaction were taken to shed light on the rate of these Diels Alder reactions as well as endo versus exo product ratios. In these trials, I we are investigating the effect of using Lewis Acid catalysts and Ionic liquids to evaluate differences in these reactions at various stages.

Revisiting a classic chemical reaction: Exploring the effect of Lewis acids and ionic liquids on the Diels-Alder reaction

251st National Meeting (2016)

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