Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos. 50825303 and 30890140) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2009CB-930400).
We report a new, effective and simple method for preparing a,fl-unsaturated carbonyl compounds by reacting ketones and aromatic alcohols at 56 ℃ in the presence of CrO3 (CrO3 acts as an oxidant and also a catalyst)...