100 selective oxygenation of p-xylene to p-tolualdehyde via photoinduced electron transfer

K Ohkubo; S Fukuzumi

doi:10.1021/ol0065571

100 selective oxygenation of p-xylene to p-tolualdehyde via photoinduced electron transfer

Org Lett. 2000 Nov 16;2(23):3647-50. doi: 10.1021/ol0065571.

Authors

K Ohkubo¹, S Fukuzumi

Affiliation

¹ Department of Material and Life Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, CREST, Japan, and Science and Technology Corporation, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.

PMID: 11073666
DOI: 10.1021/ol0065571

Abstract

The 100% selective oxygenation of p-xylene to p-tolualdehyde is initiated by photoinduced electron transfer from p-xylene to the singlet excited state of 10-methyl-9-phenylacridinium ion under visible light irradiation, yielding p-tolualdehyde exclusively as the final oxygenated product. The reason for the high selectivity in the photocatalytic oxygenation of p-xylene is discussed on the basis of the photoinduced electron transfer mechanism.