Benzyl alcohol, aerobic oxidation

A recent contribution reported by Aoshima and Tsukuda showed the aerobic oxidation of alcohols such as benzyl alcohol catalyzed by gold nanoclusters. These stable and durable clusters of less than 4 nm were prepared using thermosensitive vinyl ether star polymers previously obtained by living cationic polymerization. 

An efficient and convenient methodology for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols catalysed by sol-gel trapped perruthenate and promoted by an encapsulated ionic liquid in supercritical carbon dioxide solution has been reported. The reaction is highly selective and useful for substrates otherwise difficult to oxidize.263 A four-component system consisting of acetamido-TEMPO-Cu(C104)2-TMDP-DABCO has been developed for aerobic alcohol oxidation at room temperature. The catalytic system shows excellent selectivity towards the oxidation of benzylic and allylic alcohols and is not deactivated by heteroatom-containing (S, N) compounds. The use of DMSO as the reaction medium allows the catalysts to be recycled and reused for three runs with no significant loss of catalytic activity.264... 

A new catalytic system consisting of a persistent macrocyclic aminoxyl radical and the couple Mn(N03)2-Co(NC>3)2 for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds has been developed. The rate-determining step has been identified by studying the effect of substituents on the oxidation of benzyl alcohol. The chemistry of aminoxyl, amidoxyl, and imidoxyl radicals has been discussed.265... 

Although a suitable acceptor for the transfer dehydrogenation of benzylic alcohols has not yet been found, under the present conditions the low conversion of benzylic alcohols is only an apparent drawback. Indeed, it has a positive side as it allows us to fine-tune the system s selectivity. This makes the catalytic system unique among all the others known, operating both under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, that preferentially oxidize benzylic alcohols with respect to nonacti-vated secondary ones. 

Pd(II) catalysts have been widely used for aerobic oxidation of alcohols. The catalytic systems Pd(OAc)2-(CH3)2SO [14] and Pd(OAc)2-pyridine [15] oxidize allylic and benzylic alcohols to the corresponding aldehydes and ketones. Secondary aliphatic alcohols, with relatively high water solubility, have been oxidized to the corresponding ketones by air at high pressure, at 100 °C in water, by using a water-soluble bathophenanthroline disulfonate palladium complex [PhenS Pd(OAc)2] [5d]. The Pd catalyst has also been successfully used for aerobic oxidative kinetic resolution of secondary alcohols, using (-)-sparteine [16]. 

Ruthenium compounds have been extensively studied as catalysts for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols [142]. They operate under mild conditions and offer possibilities for both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. The activity of common ruthenium precursors such as RuCl2PPh3, can be increased by the use of ionic liquids as solvents (Fig. 4.58). Tetramethylammoniumhydroxide and aliquat 336 (tricaprylylmethylammonium chloride) were used as solvent and rapid conversion of benzyl alcohol was observed [145]. Moreover the tetra-methylammonium hydroxide/RuCl2(PPh3)3 could be reused after extraction of the product. 

Much effort has been devoted to finding synthetically useful methods for the palladium-catalyzed aerobic oxidation of alcohols. For a detailed overview the reader is referred to several excellent reviews [163]. The first synthetically useful system was reported in 1998, when Peterson and Larock showed that simple Pd(OAc)2 in combination with NaHC03 as a base in DMSO as solvent catalyzed the aerobic oxidation of primary and secondary allylic and benzylic alcohols to the corresponding aldehydes and ketones, respectively, in fairly good yields [164, 165]. Recently, it was shown that replacing the non-green DMSO by an ionic liquid (imidazole-type) resulted in a three times higher activity of the Pd-catalyst [166]. 

Analogous ring-closure of 6-aryloxy- and 6-arylthio-l-methyluracils yields 5-deaza-10-oxaflavins and 5-deaza-10-thiaflavins, respectively. The former oxidizes benzyl alcohol under neutral (aerobic) conditions... 

The same group reported a second multiphase flow system for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols, catalyzed by bimetallic nanoclusters (Au-Pt and Au-Pd) in a packed-bed configuration [29]. In addition, the direct oxidative methyl ester formation of various aliphatic and benzylic alcohols was achieved, showing much higher yields and selectivities as compared with its batch counterpart. 

The active site responsible for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols over Pd/AljO, catalysts has long been debated [96-lOOj. Many reports claim that the active site for this catalyst material is the metallic palladium based on electrochemical studies of these catalysts [100, 101]. On the contrary, there are reports that claim that palladium oxide is the active site for the oxidation reaction and the metalhc palladium has a lesser catalytic activity [96,97). In this section, we present examples on how in situ XAS combined with other analytical techniques such as ATR-IR, DRIFTS, and mass spectroscopic methods have been used to study the nature of the actual active site for the supported palladium catalysts for the selective aerobic oxidation of benzylic alcohols. Initially, we present examples that claim that palladium in its metallic state is the active site for this selective aerobic oxidation, followed by some recent examples where researchers have reported that ojddic palladium is the active site for this reaction. Examples where in situ spectroscopic methods have been utilized to arrive at the conclusion are presented here. For this purpose, a spectroscopic reaction cell, acting as a continuous flow reactor, has been equipped with X-ray transparent windows and then charged with the catalyst material. A liquid pump is used to feed the reactants and solvent mixture into the reaction cell, which can be heated by an oven. The reaction was monitored by a transmission flow-through IR cell. A detailed description of the experimental setup and procedure can be found elsewhere [100]. Figure 12.10 shows the obtained XAS results as well as the online product analysis by FTIR for a Pd/AljOj catalyst during the aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol. 

Similarly, Au NPs have also been supported on r-GO an N-doped r-GO and the materials have been tested as catalysts for the aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol [40-41]. It was found that the presence of nitrogen as dopant is beneficial to obtain Au NPs with small size, therefore exhibiting enhanced catalytic activity [41]. The use of Au NPs and Au-Pd NPs supported on r-GO has also been reported to promote the aerobic oxidation of alcohols and oxidation of methanol to methyl formate [42]. In one of these examples, r-GO has been functionalized with imidazolium ionic liquid covalently anchored to the r-GO in order to increase the affinity of the support for Au NPs. 

This finding led to the development of a practical method for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols. Several systems have been reported as shown in Table 2. Primary and secondary aliphatic alcohols can be converted to the corresponding aldehydes and ketones, respectively, upon treatment with Pd(OAc)2 catalyst in the presence of pyridine and MS 3 A in toluene (entries 2 and Various benzyl alcohols are also oxidized under the... 

Semmelhack ef al. [112] reported that the combination of CuCl and 4-hydroxy TEM PO catalyzes the aerobic oxidation of alcohols. However, the scope was limited to active benzylic and allylic alcohols, and activities were low (10mol% of catalyst was needed for smooth reaction). They proposed that the copper catalyzes the reoxidation... 

Further research into the reaction mechanism revealed that the reaction rate was correlated with the electron structure of the sulfoxide the more electropositive sulfoxides were the better oxygen donors. Excellent correlation of the reaction rates with the heterolytic benzylic carbon-hydrogen bond dissociation energies indicated a hydride abstraction mechanism in the rate-determining step to yield a carbocation intermediate. The formation of 9-phenylfluorene as by-product in the oxidation of triphenylmethane supports this suggestion. Further kinetic experiments and NMR showed the formation of a polyoxometalate-sulfoxide complex before the oxidation reaction, this complex being the active oxidant in these systems. Subsequently, in a similar reaction system, sulfoxides were used to facilitate the aerobic oxidation of alcohols [29]. In this manner, benzylic, allyUc, and aliphatic alcohols were all oxidized to aldehydes and ketones in a reaction catalyzed by Ke jn-type... 

Ruthenium compounds are widely used as catalysts in organic synthesis and have been extensively studied as catalysts for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols In 1978, Mares and coworkers reported that RuCls.nHjO catalyzes the aerobic oxidation of secondary alcohols into the corresponding ketones, albeit in modest yields. Subsequently, RUCI3 and RuCl2(Ph3P)j were shown to catalyze the aerobic oxidation of activated allylic and benzylic alcohols under mild conditions, e.g. the oxidation of retinol to retinal (Reaction 2). 

Carbonyl Compounds by Oxidation of Alcohols and Aldehydes. A critical assessment of the use of palladium catalysts in the aerobic oxidation of alcohols has concluded that Pd(OAc)2-Et3N is the most versatile and convenient catalyst system and that this often functions under especially mild conditions.There have been many other recent advances in this field and such that there is now a wealth of methods available for effecting the palladium-catalyzed oxidation of alcohols. A procedure using pyridine under an oxygen atmosphere has been shown to convert benzylic and aliphatic alcohols into the corresponding aldehydes or ketones. The yields of product are frequently over 90%. Replacing pyridine with (—)-sparteine in such processes allows for the oxidative kinetic resolution of chiral secondary alcohols. 

Figure 5.5 Example of drastic activity enhancements. Aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde in scC02 over TPAP entrapped in aged ( , ) and fresh ( ) 75% methyl-modified silica matrix. (Reproduced from Adv. Fund. Mater., with permission.)...

Figure 5.8 Oxidation kinetics in the aerobic conversion of benzyl alcohol to benzal-dehyde in toluene mediated by 10 mol% TPAP either encapsulated in the sol-gel hydrophobic matrix A-Me3 or unsupported. (Reproduced from ref. 17, with permission.)...

Figure 32. Proposed mechanism for the aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol by Complex E. [Adapted from (212).]...

Recently, two reports (218, 219) appeared showing that (iminosemiqui-nonato)copper(II) complexes also catalyze the aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols (ethanol, benzyl alcohol) to the corresponding aldehydes and H202. Complexes J and K shown in Fig. 33 have been isolated as active catalysts and the former has been characterized by X-ray crystallography. Detailed mechanistic studies have been performed that again show the close resemblance to GO. 

Ishii and co-workers [109] reported the aerobic oxidation of various organic compounds catalyzed by (NH4)5H6[PV8Mo4O40] supported on active carbon. The catalyst showed high activity for oxidative dehydrogenation of various benzylic and allylic alcohols to give the corresponding carbonyl compounds in moderate to high yields. The catalyst can be recycled without loss of activity for the... 

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