Various vinylheterocycles compounds have been prepared in excellent yields through -elimination of the corresponding sulfonate esters with 50% aq NaOH under phase transfer catalysis conditions without organic solvent. The new approach provides an economic and environmentally friendly solution to removal of hazardous bases as well as toxic and expensive dipolar aprotic solvents.The development of environmentally friendly synthetic procedures has seen a steadily growing interest in the past few years in academic and industrial chemistry. 1 In particular, it is of increasing interest to avoid solvents by carrying out reactions under solvent-free conditions or by replacing them with greener alternatives. 2 Vinylthiazoles are useful intermediates for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, 3 flavoring materials, 4 insect repellents 5 and lubricant additives. 6 For example 4-methyl-5-vinylthiazole (6), a widely employed vinylthiazole, has been prepared by treating thiamine 1 with saturated aqueous HBr, followed by quaternarization of the resulting bromide 2 with trimethylamine. The vinylthiazole 6 was generated by the sequential treatment of the ammonium salt 3 with Ag 2 O and hot KOH (Scheme 1). 7 This procedure suffers from low atom efficiency since the (4-amino-2-methyl-5-pyrimidinyl)methyl] portion of thiamine is lost. Moreover, the use of corrosive HBr, expensive Ag 2 O and toxic benzene severely hinders the scale-up.More recently vinylthiazoles have also been prepared from the corresponding sulfonate ester 5 through -elimination promoted by strong bases such as NaH, t-BuOK or DBU in DMF (Scheme 1). 5 Although this procedure affords the desired vinylthiazoles in good yields, it also suffers from limitations derived from using strong but expensive bases that require careful handling. Moreover, process unfriendly solvents such as DMF are required; therefore, additional steps are needed for its removal and disposal.On the other hand, 5-formyl-4-methylthiazole (9) is an important starting material for manufacturing Cefditoren, a wide spectrum antibiotic ( Figure 1). 8 5-Formyl-4-methylthiazole (9) has usually been prepared by oxidation of 4-methyl-5-(2-hydroxyethyl)thiazole (4) with pyridinium dichromate 9 or other chromium derivatives, 10 or by oxidation of alcohol 8 with MnO 2 11 or NaOCl (Scheme 2). 12 The aldehyde 9 has also been prepared through reduction of 4-methylthiazole-5-carboxylic acid ethyl ester (7) with NaBH 4 -AlCl 3 followed by oxidation of the alcohol 8 thus Rubi, E.; Arnal, P.; Boisbrun, M.; Carcel, C.; SalomRoig, X.; Maynadier, M.; Wein, S.; Vial, H.; Calas, M. Sukegawa, M.; Watanabe, T.; Iwasawa, H.; Murai, Y.; Iinuma, K.