Co-oxidation of substituted benzaldehydes

The competitive oxidation of substituted benzaldehydes in acetic anhydride solution, in which the peracids are transformed into acetyl benzoyl peroxides thus eliminating peracid—aldehyde interaction, enabled the relative reactivities of the benzoylperoxy radicals to be determined with respect to a series of aldehydes [47], In a mixture of two aldehydes, ther peroxidic radicals react according to the two pairs of competitive reactions 

For long-chain radical oxidation, this leads to the expression 

When the amounts of consumed and active oxygen and the acid distribution after peroxide reduction are known, it is possible to obtain the relative reactivities, which are summed up in Table 9. 

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