The elimination of four alcohols with 1,2-diphenylethanol scaffold catalyzed by various acids afforded the unexpected alkenes respectively, which were not the products following Sayzteff’s rule. When employing SOCl2/DMF, the elimination resulted in a pair of isomers with the double-bond at different positions. The energy of the two isomers was calculated via a computer-aided method using Gaussian 98 and B3LYP/6-31G, showing that the elimination of this kind of alcohols in the presence of acid could relate to a kinetic mechanism.

Key words: elimination reaction, kinetics reaction, thermodynamics reaction, 1,2-diphenylethanol