Kinetic and Mechanistic Elucidation of the Formation Reaction of 3,4,5-Substituted Furan-2(5H)-Ones in Formic Acid as the Solvent

For the first time, kinetics and mechanism of a one-pot multicomponent reaction between 4-methyl aniline 1 and diethyl acetylenedicarboxylate 2 with benzaldehyde 3 has been investigated spectroscopically in formic acid. The reaction followed second-order kinetics overall. Also, partial orders with respect to 4-methyl aniline 1, diethyl acetylenedicarboxylate 2 and benzaldehyde 3 are one, one and zero, respectively. Considering the kinetic results, a mechanism was proposed involving four steps. Furthermore, thermodynamic activation parameters and also kinetic values were obtained and examined at the various temperatures and solvents. The results show that the first step of the reaction mechanism is a rate-determining step.