Titanium-catalysed deoxygenation of benzylic alcohols and lignin model compounds

We report a catalytic system for direct deoxygenation of benzylic alcohols by using non-precious precatalyst Cp2TiCl2 and 2 MeTHF as solvent. Mechanistic studies showed that the used silane Me(EtO)2SiH acts both as H-donor and regenerating agent of the active catalytic species. This method tolerates a wide variety of functional and protecting groups and enables sequential deoxygenation-dehalogenation and deoxygenation-hydrogenation reactions. The procedure was successfully applied in the exhaustive reduction of lignin model substrates into value-added compounds.