Epoxidation Using Urea-H2O2 Adduct

In 1994, Mansuy and coworkers found that a simple ammonium salt, like ammonium acetate alone, is a very efficient cocatalyst for the metalloporphyrin-catalyzed epoxidation of simple alkenes by hydrogen peroxide ". Bases like sodium carbonate, sodium acetate or tetrabutylammonium hydroxide turned out to promote the porphyrin-catalyzed epoxidation without any other additive. Adducts of hydrogen peroxide (with Na2C03, urea, MesNO, PhsPO), which turned out to be particularly useful for reactions in which the concentration of H2O2 in solution needs to be controlled at a fixed level, have been employed by Johnstone and coworkers. 

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