Acceptorless dehydrogenative lactonization of diols by Pt-loaded SnO2 catalysts

We report herein a new heterogeneous catalytic system for dehydrogenative lactonization of various diols under solvent-free and acceptor-free conditions using 1 mol% of Pt-loaded SnO2, providing the first successful example of acceptorless lactonization of 1,6-hexanediol to epsilon-caprolactone by a heterogeneous catalyst.