Secondary alcohols (carbinols) react withprimary alcohols in dioxane at 80
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
C in the presence ofa catalytic amount of RuCl
2(PPh
3)
3 and KOH along witha sacrificial hydrogen acceptor to afford the corresponding coupled secondary alcohols. The reaction is applicable to a wide range of aryl methyl, alkyl methyl,
and cyclic carbinols,
and with alkyl methyl carbinols,the alkylation took place exclusively at the less-hinderedmethyl position over
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
-methylene
and -methine.