Alkenes into alkyl hydroperoxides

The selective epoxidation of alkenes by alkyl hydroperoxides in the presence of d° transition metals (equation 64), reported in 1965,234 has been widely applied in organic chemistry and has been developed into a commercial process for the manufacture of propylene oxide by Halcon (M = Mo)99 and by Shell (M = Ti/SiO2).10°... 

Usually, organoboranes are sensitive to oxygen. Simple trialkylboranes are spontaneously flammable in contact with air. Nevertheless, under carefully controlled conditions the reaction of organoboranes with oxygen can be used for the preparation of alcohols or alkyl hydroperoxides (228,229). Aldehydes are produced by oxidation of primary alkylboranes with pyridinium chi orochrom ate (188). Chromic acid at pH < 3 transforms secondary alkyl and cycloalkylboranes into ketones pyridinium chi orochrom ate can also be used (230,231). A convenient procedure for the direct conversion of terminal alkenes into carboxyUc acids employs hydroboration with dibromoborane—dimethyl sulfide and oxidation of the intermediate alkyldibromoborane with chromium trioxide in 90% aqueous acetic acid (232,233). 

The molybdenum-catalyzed conversion of alkenes into epoxides by alkyl hydroperoxides is an important commercial process.17,18 The synthetic potential of such reactions in regard to more complex organic molecules has been evaluated19 alkyl hydroperoxides are used as oxidants in the... 

A Co(II) Schiff-base complex converts 1- and 2-alkenes into methyl ketones and the corresponding secondary alcohols in the presence of oxygen or H2O2 in primary alcohol solvent.543 A radical oxidation with cobalt hydroperoxide through the formation and subsequent decomposition of alkyl hydroperoxide was suggested.543 An efficient conversion of alkenylarenes to ketones was achieved by the use of molecular oxygen and EtjSiH in the presence of a catalytic amount of Co(II) porphyrin in 2-propanol.544... 

Recently, it has been proposed that alkyl hydroperoxides are formed from the Coni-catalyzed Markov-nikov addition of hydrogen peroxide to alkenes.371 The alkyl hydroperoxides thus formed are immediately decomposed into ketones and alcohols under the reaction conditions (equation 237). 

Oxidations by oxygen and catalysts are used for the conversion of alkanes into alcohols, ketones, or acids [54]-, for the epoxidation of alkenes [43, for the formation of alkenyl hydroperoxides [22] for the conversion of terminal alkenes into methyl ketones [60, 65] for the coupling of terminal acetylenes [2, 59, 66] for the oxidation of aromatic compounds to quinones [3] or carboxylic acids [65] for the dehydrogenation of alcohols to aldehydes [4, 55, 56] or ketones [56, 57, 62, 70] for the conversion of alcohols [56, 69], aldehydes [5, 6, 63], and ketones [52, 67] into carboxylic acids and for the oxidation of primary amines to nitriles [64], of thiols to disulfides [9] or sulfonic acids [53], of sulfoxides to sulfones [70], and of alkyl dichloroboranes to alkyl hydroperoxides [57]. 

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