Iron-catalyzed reduction of aromatic aldehydes with paraformaldehyde and H2O as the hydrogen source

In this Letter, we report a novel, general, convenient, and inexpensive method for the reduction of aromatic aldehydes to the corresponding benzylic alcohols. Various aromatic aldehydes were reduced in good to excellent yields by using well-defined iron-complex as the catalyst precursor and using paraformaldehyde and water as the hydrogen source. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.