Preparative Methods for Aldehydes and Ketones

A number of useful reactions for the preparation of aldehydes and ketones, such as ozonization of alkenes and hydration of alkynes, have been considered in previous chapters. These and other methods of preparation are summarized in Tables 16-7 and 16-8 at the end of the chapter. Only a few rather general methods that we have not discussed will be taken up here. 

Aldehydes and ketones often can be prepared by oxidation of alkenes to 1,2-diols (Sections 11-7C and 11-7D), followed by oxidative cleavage of the 1,2-diols with lead tetraethanoate or sodium periodate. For example, 

Cleavage of glycols with these reagents proceeds according to the following stoichiometry  

Exercise 16-37 An elegant modification of the two-step procedure to prepare ketones from alkenes by hydroxylation and oxidative cleavage of the diol formed uses a small amount of potassium permanganate (or osmium tetroxide, 0s04) as the catalyst and sodium periodate as the oxidizing agent  

Explain how the reaction sequence could operate to enable KMn04 (or 0s04) to function overall as a catalyst rather than as a reagent. 

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