Organocatalyzed ipso hydroxylation of aryl boronic acids in aqueous medium: A metal free approach.

A highly efficient protocol was developed for the ipso hydroxylation of arylboronic acids using citric acid as an effective organocatalyst. The sustainable methodology offers good to excellent yields with in the rapid reaction time in water as a solvent media and 30% H2O2 as an oxidant. The reaction proceeds without the aid of any metal catalyst or base and is simple, safe, and clean. The current protocol enables the access to variety of phenols and is found to be tolerable to the diverse electronic substrates. Even, the devised reaction conditions have been found to be effective in the gram-scale synthesis of an API, Mequinol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]