Pels, Kevin

The Phase-Vanishing polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Teflon®) method separates two reactants with a layer of semipermeable polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Teflon®) tape. Expanding on previous work by Van Zee and Dragojlovic, this work investigates the use of the PV-PTFE method under solvent-free conditions and explores its value as a synthetic method for Wittig reactions to produce allenes and allenyl esters. We conducted multiple brominations, halolactonizations, and tandem Diels-Alder-halolactonizations under solvent-free conditions with largely successful results. We also synthesized an allenyl ester, as well as cis-stilbenes using benzyltriphenylphosphonium salts, but cannot report any significant advantage of the PV-PTFE method over known methods.

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