A simple, general, and highly chemoselective acetylation of alcohols using ethyl acetate as the acetyl donor catalyzed by a tetranuclear zinc cluster

In the presence of a Zn-cluster catalyst, alcohols are efficiently converted to the corresponding acetate just by refluxing in EtOAc. The mild reaction conditions enabled the reactions of various functionalized alcohols to proceed in good to excellent yield. Moreover, even when a large excess of the acetyl donor is used, the hydroxyl groups are selectively acetylated in the presence of highly nucleophilic aliphatic amino groups, approaching chemoselectivity to that of enzymatic system.