One-Pot Preparation of a Fragrance with a Palladium Catalyst

A one-pot preparation of a fragrance [4-(p-methoxyphenyl)butan-2-one, 3] was reported via the heterogeneous Heck and hydrogenation reactions. Thus, the Heck reaction of 1 and methyl vinyl ketone was performed in an autoclave with a heterogeneous Pd catalyst [2 wt% on TiO2 (2Pd-TiO2)] and Na2CO3 to give 2 in 100% yield. The one-pot hydrogenation of 2 was carried out with H2 gas to give 3 with 97% yield. The cata­lyst was reused without a significant loss of catalytic acitivity.