Chromium carbonyl complexes benzylic alcohols

Use of chromium(VI) reagents for oxidative transformation is compromised by their inherent toxicity, involved preparation of the various complex forms (with pyridine or acetic acid), and cumbersome work-up procedures. Chromium trioxide (CrOa) immobilized on premoistened alumina enables efficient oxidation of benzyl alcohols to carbonyl compounds by simple mixing with different substrates... 

The oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds is a fundamental reaction that has synthetic and chemical importance. Using chromium-based catalysts, researchers have developed several catalysts that have impacted alcohol oxidation reactions. Recently, homogeneous catalysts have had problems with catalyst/product separation and suffer from poor catalyst recyclability. Therefore, the quest for a resolution to this problem has led researchers to scaffold salen complexes onto a silica-based material such as MCM-41. Zhou et al. used an ion-exchangeable, layered polysiloxane support to immobili.se their sulfonato-(salen)Cr(m) complex. They reacted benzyl alcohol, cyclo-hexanol and -hexanol with hydrogen peroxide as oxidant in an ionic liquid at 40 °C. Several ionic liquids were investigated [BMImX (BMIm = 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium X =PF6, BF4, NOs")] and compared for each substrate. 

Vanhoye and coworkers [402] synthesized aldehydes by using the electrogenerated radical anion of iron pentacarbonyl to reduce iodoethane and benzyl bromide in the presence of carbon monoxide. Esters can be prepared catalytically from alkyl halides and alcohols in the presence of iron pentacarbonyl [403]. Yoshida and coworkers reduced mixtures of organic halides and iron pentacarbonyl and then introduced an electrophile to obtain carbonyl compounds [404] and converted alkyl halides into aldehydes by using iron pentacarbonyl as a catalyst [405,406]. Finally, a review by Torii [407] provides references to additional papers that deal with catalytic processes involving complexes of nickel, cobalt, iron, palladium, rhodium, platinum, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, manganese, rhenium, tin, lead, zinc, mercury, and titanium. 

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