Oxidants, palladium-catalyzed reactions, copper® bromide

P-Lactones can be obtained by oxidative carbonylation of alkenes in the presence of water. Ethylene, for example, is converted to p-propiolactone by carbonylation in aqueous acetonitrile at -20 C using a catalytic amount of PdCh and a stoichiometric quantity of copper(II) chloride (equation 37). Palladium-catalyzed carbonylation of halides can also be used to prepare p-lactones under mild conditions. The reaction takes place at room temperature and pressure in the presence of [PdCl2(PPh3)2] and has been applied to both bromides and chlorides (equations 38 and 39). 

Because oxidations with oxygen are free-radical reactions, free radicals should be good initiators. Indeed, in the presence of hydrogen bromide at high enough temperatures, lower molecular weight alkanes are oxidized to alcohols, ketones, or acids [5 7]. Much more practical are oxidations catalyzed by transition metals, such as platinum [5, 6, 55, 56], or, more often, metal oxides and salts, especially salts soluble in organic solvents (acetates, acetylacetonates, etc.). The favored catalysts are vanadium pent-oxide [3] and chlorides or acetates of copper [2, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66], iron [67], cobalt [68, 69], palladium [60, 70], rhodium [10], iridium [10], and platinum [5, 6, 56, 57]. 

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