Cycloalkane-1,2-dicarboxylates oxidation

In the first reports by Ishii and coworkers , catalytic amounts of both HPI and Co(II)acetylacetonate, Co(acac)2, were employed for the oxidation of alkanes in AcOH at 100 °C, dioxygen being the terminal oxidant. The appeal of this procedure for the oxidative transformation of simple hydrocarbons into carbonyl derivatives is clear. Cycloalkanes were converted into a mixture of cyclic ketones plus open-chain a, )-dicarboxylic acids (Table 11), while linear alkanes yielded the corresponding alcohols plus ketones in significant amounts (40-80%), and alkylbenzenes could be oxidized in almost quantitative yields . 

Cyclic olefins preferably undergo twofold carbonylation, even without the presence of buffer compounds such as sodium acetate. With methanol serving as the solvent and under comparable reaction conditions to those mentioned above, cycloalkenes give product mixtures consisting of methyl rrans-2-methoxy-cycloalkanecarboxylates, dimethyl cw-cycloalkane-l,2-dicarboxylates and dimethyl cw-cycloalkane-1,3-dicarboxylates (eq. (3) and Table 1). The formation of 1,3-diesters may be explained by an intermediate reaction sequence which involves an oxidative elimination and a subsequent readdition of the Pd species, thus giving rise to an isomerization [9]. 

Other examples of nitroxyl radicals such as TEMPO [3Id, j] have been used successfully in several examples of environmentally friendly liquid-phase oxidations with. oxygen. Sheldon et al. have reported on the use of N-hydroxysaccharin as an alternative to NHPI in the oxidation of cycloalkanes to dicarboxylic acids [31h]. Other examples include the aerobial oxidation in the presence of NHPI, o-phenanthroline and bromine, in an acetonitrile/CCU solvent and in the absence of metals, at 100 °C. The selectivity was 75% to AA and 22% to cyclohexanone, at 48% cyclohexane conversion [31i]. 

Cycloalkanes are generally oxidized to straight-chain dicarboxylic acids only with great difficulty and then in poor yield. For example, on oxidation by nitric acid cyclohexane gives a mixture of 29% of adipic acid and 36% of nitrocyclohexane.101... 

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