A simple approach to separate a mixture of homopropargylic and allenic alcohols

A simple and practical approach to separate homopropargylic alcohol from allenic alcohol has been developed. It involves the formation of an insoluble silver acetylide species between silver nitrate and homopropargylic alcohol in aqueous acetone which can be separated from the allenic alcohol through a simple filtration. The homopropargylic alcohol can subsequently be recovered by hydrolysis with 1 N HCl. This protocol has been applied to the separation of a mixture of chiral homopropargylic and allenic alcohols in excellent yields with retention of absolute stereochemistry.