Oxo-rhenium catalyzed reductive coupling and deoxygenation of alcohols.

Representative benzylic, allylic and α-keto alcohols are deoxygenated to alkanes and/or reductively coupled to alkane dimers by reaction with PPh3 catalyzed by (PPh3)2ReIO2 (1). The newly discovered catalytic reductive coupling reaction is a rare C-C bond-forming transformation of alcohols.