Introduction
Titanium(III) chloride is red-violet crystalline solid soluble in water and alcohol. It has been extensively used as a mild and useful reagent with diverse applications in organic synthesis, such as reduction of aromatic aldehydes, glycosyl halides, vicinal dihalides, sulfoxides,[
1
] oximes,[2]
[3]
[4]
[5] hydroxamic acids,[
6
] nitro group,[
7
] and dehalogenation of α-halo ketones.[
8
] In addition, the aqueous TiCl3/NH3 system has been used to promote the reduction of aromatic aldehydes, ketenes, and diketones to give alcohols.[9]
[10] Reductive cyclizations of oxoamides to produce indoles can also be effectively promoted by TiCl3.[
11
] Apart from these applications, TiCl3 is also known as a Lewis acid to catalyze the SnCl2-mediated Barbier reactions between aldehydes and allyl halides in aqueous media.[
12
]
TiCl3 is commercially available and can be synthesized by dissolving titanium in aqueous hydrochloric acid.