3-picoline liquid-phase oxidation

Although an inherently more efficient process, the direct chemical oxidation of 3-methylpyridine does not have the same commercial significance as the oxidation of 2-methyl-5-ethylpyridine. Liquid-phase oxidation procedures are typically used (5). A Japanese patent describes a procedure that uses no solvent and avoids the use of acetic acid (6). In this procedure, 3-methylpyridine is combined with cobalt acetate, manganese acetate and aqueous hydrobromic acid in an autoclave. The mixture is pressurized to 101.3 kPa (100 atm) with air and allowed to react at 210°C. At a 32% conversion of the picoline, 19% of the acid was obtained. Electrochemical methods have also been described (7). 

Liquid-Phase Oxidation of 3-Picoline with Permanganate, Chromic Acid or Nitric Acid... 

Picolinic acid also accelerates the H2O2 oxidations but less efficiently than pyrazine-2-carboxylic acid. It has been demonstrated recendy that the vanadium complex with picolinic acid, VO(PA)2 , encapsulated into the NaY zeolite retains solution-like activity in the liquid-phase oxidation of hydrocarbons [16a], It is noteworthy that pyrazine-2-carboxylic acid accelerates the hydrocarbon oxidation catalyzed by CH3Re03 [25 b]. Employing a (+)-camphor derived pyrazine-2-carboxylic acid as a potential co-catalyst in the CHsReOj-catalyzed oxidation of methyl phenyl sulfide with urea-H202 adduct, the corresponding sulfoxide was obtained with an e.e. of 15% [16b]. 

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