Catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water

This thesis describes a study of catalysis of Diels-Alder reactions in water. No studies in this field had been reported at the start of the research, despitet he well known beneficial effects of aqueous solvents as well as of Lewis-acid catalysts on rate and endo-exo selectivity of Diels-Alder reactions in organic solvents. We envisaged that a combination of these two effects might well result in extremely large rate enhancements and improvements of the endo-exo selectivity. ... Zie: Summary