Salts, oxygen transition points

In recent years, much effort has been spent on developing both selective and environmentally friendly oxidation methods using either air or oxygen as the ultimate, oxidant. One of the most selective and efficient catalyst systems reported to date is based on the use of stable nitroxyl radicals as catalysts and transition metal salts as co-catalysts (15). The most commonly used co-catalysts are (NH4)2Ce(N03)6 (16), CuBr2-2,2 -bipiridine complex (17), RuCl2(PPh3)3 (18,19), Mn(N03)2-Co(N03)2 and Mn(N03)2-Cu(N03)2 (20). However, from an economic and environmental point of view, these oxidation methods suffer from one common drawback. They depend on substantial amounts of expensive and/or toxic transition metal complexes and some of them require the use of halogenated solvents like dichloromethane, which makes them unsuitable for industrial scale production. 

We should point out that many oxides of the transition metals beyond those listed in Table 20.2 can be prepared indirectly. For example, although silver does not react directly with oxygen, silver(I) oxide, Ag20, can be made by treating a solution of a silver salt with strong base. 

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