Systematic study on catalytic arsa-Wittig reaction.

Efficient catalytic arsa-Wittig reaction has been developed using 1-phenylarsolane as a catalyst. A wide array of aldehydes were converted to the corresponding olefins in high yields with moderate to excellent E stereoselectivity in the presence of the catalytic amount of 1-phenylarsolane. Moreover, density functional theory calculations were carried out to afford insight into the E / Z selectivity.