Prospects for Scale-Up

The selectivity, activity, and broad scope of recently reported Cu/nitroxyl-catalyzed aerobic alcohol oxidation protocols make these methods well suited for application on both laboratory and process scale in the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industry. The early catalyst systems of Semmelhack et al. [14] and Sheldon [16] have attracted industrial interest, albeit not necessarily for commercial production. 

Copper-catalyzed aerobic alcohol oxidation has proven to be a key step in the production of vanillin, but other commercial-scale applications have not yet been realized. Nevertheless, the industrial interest in some of the early cop-per/cocatalyst systems for aerobic oxidation bodes well for future apphcations. Recent academic studies have led to significantly improved catalyst systems 

(a) Tojo, G. and Fernandez, M. (2010) Oxidation of Alcohols to Aldehydes and Ketones, Springer, New York (b) Tojo, 

For reviews of aerobic alcohol oxidation, see (a) Sheldon, R.A., Arends, 

---

This chapter provides some highhghts in the innovative field of aerobic oxidation reactions in continuous flow. Topics include transition metal-catalyzed aerobic oxidations in continuous flow, photosensitized singlet oxygen oxidation in continuous flow, metal-free aerobic oxidations in continuous flow, aerobic cou-phng chemistry in continuous flow, and general prospects for scale-up. Ozonolysis is not covered in this chapter hereto, we refer to the literature [25—27]. 

---