ChemInform Abstract: Silica Sulfuric Acid as a Highly Efficient Catalyst for the Synthesis of Diarylacetic Acids

An efficient heterogeneous method for the synthesis of diarylacetic acids was developed utilizing silica sulfuric acid as a catalyst. The reaction is highly efficient with a small amount of catalyst for the combination of a variety of electron-neutral to electron-rich arenes with glyoxylic acid. The reaction can also be utilized to synthesize unsymmetric derivatives from activated mandelic acids in good to excellent yields.