Green One‐Pot Strategy for the Direct Synthesis of Benzil

Abstract A practical and green methodology has been developed for the direct synthesis of arylated 1,2‐diketones from aldehydes utilizing 4 mol% of N ‐heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) organocatalysts and activated carbon. The design of this method is a one‐pot, two‐step sequence: NHC‐catalyzed benzoin condensation followed by aerobic oxidation in the presence of activated carbon (AC) and molecular O 2, offering good to high yields, tolerating various functional groups. This method demonstrates a sustainable and eco‐friendly protocol for efficiently synthesizing benzil scaffolds from a wide range of aldehydes directly through one‐pot conversions. Catalyst loading, solvent screening, and mechanistic experiments were also performed to understand the roles of NHC catalysts and activated charcoal.