Manganese‐Catalyzed Selective Upgrading of Ethanol with Methanol into Isobutanol

: Isobutanol serves as an ideal gasoline additive owing to its good compatibility with current engine technology, high energy density, and high octane number. Herein, an efficient and selective Mn-catalyzed upgrading of ethanol with methanol into isobutanol is reported. This is the first example of deoxygenative coupling of lower alcohols to isobutanol by using a homogeneous non-noble-metal catalyst. This transformation proceeded at very low catalyst loading with a high turnover number (9233) and up to 96 % isobutanol selectivity.