The Morita-Bayliss-Hillman reaction is notoriously slow.

Biphasic systems with a phase transfer catalyst or aqueous alcohols have been shown to be beneficial. If you have problems with sensitivity be sure to use a solvent with a high dielectric constant to stabilise the zwitterionic intermediate.

Thanks for the answer Eric.

Gupta,

The addition of the amine catalyst [e.g. DMAP, DBU, DABCO, TMA.....] to the activated alkene to form a stabilized nucleophilic anion is the key step to this reaction. Several reaction conditions were reported using different solvents [e.g. MeOH, MeOH/CHCl3, THF,......]. To select the best condition for your system, please read this

---http://www.organic-chemistry.org/namedreactions/baylis-hillman-reaction.shtm

and the references therein. I trust that you will find the answer to your question yourself.

Good luck

Try this one, Probing the Mechanism of Baylis-Hillman Reaction in Ionic Liquids.

Anshu Singh and Anil Kumar *

Physical and Materials Chemistry Division, National Chemical Laboratory, Homi Bhabha Road, Pune 411 008, India

J. Org. Chem., 2012, 77 (19), pp 8775–8779

DOI: 10.1021/jo301348k