“…Using our literature benchmark reaction ( 5 ) in 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) solvent and targeted primary alkyl-halide examples ( 6 and 7 ), we conducted an initial screening of bases (entries B1–B10). As shown with entry B1, sodium carbonate gave similar conversions across the three products 5 , 6 , and 7 (58–68%), with a slightly lower yield than reported by MacMillan et al Of note, cesium carbonate, which is often utilized as a more organic soluble carbonate source, − was surprisingly found to be detrimental for pyran 5 (30%, entry B6) and was not explored further. For the initial homogeneous starting conditions, three representative organic base classes were selected (guanidines, pyridines, and alkylamines).…”