A novel 3-nitrobenzeneboronic acid as an extremely mild and environmentally benign catalyst for the acetylation of alcohols under solvent-free conditions

A novel 3-nitrobenzeneboronic acid is found to catalyse efficiently the acetylation of a wide range of alcohols as well as phenols with acetic anhydride in good to excellent yields at room temperature under solvent-free conditions. The reactions are clean and the catalyst is mild such that highly sensitive functional groups including oximes are stable to the reaction conditions.