Donald Floyd Reinhold

Characterization of the actual catalytic agent in potassium fluoride on activated alumina systems

Abstract The spectral and chemical properties of potassium fluoride on activated alumina, an extensively used basic catalyst in organic synthesis, show that its unusually high reactivity relative to other fluoride-containing basic systems is due to the reaction of the fluoride ion with alumina to produce potassium hexafluoroaluminiate, potassium hydroxide and potassium aluminate. The reagent, more simply prepared from alumina and KOH, catalyzes the high-yielding addition of chloroform to m-nitrobenzaldehyde without producing Cannizzaro side-products.