An Efficient Iron(III)-Catalyzed Aerobic Oxidation of Aldehydes in Water for the Green Preparation of Carboxylic Acids

Han Yu; Shi Ru; Guoyong Dai; Yongyan Zhai; Hualin Lin; Sheng Han; Yongge Wei

doi:10.1002/anie.201612225

An Efficient Iron(III)-Catalyzed Aerobic Oxidation of Aldehydes in Water for the Green Preparation of Carboxylic Acids

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017 Mar 27;56(14):3867-3871. doi: 10.1002/anie.201612225. Epub 2017 Mar 2.

Authors

Han Yu^{1

2}, Shi Ru¹, Guoyong Dai¹, Yongyan Zhai¹, Hualin Lin¹, Sheng Han¹, Yongge Wei^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, 100 Haiquan Road, Shanghai, 201418, P.R. China.
² Key Lab of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P.R. China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, Peking University, Beijing, 100191, P.R. China.

PMID: 28252238
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201612225

Abstract

The first example of a heterogeneous iron(III)-catalyzed aerobic oxidation of aldehydes in water was developed. This method utilizes 1 atmosphere of oxygen as the sole oxidant, proceeds under extremely mild aqueous conditions, and covers a wide range of various functionalized aldehydes. Chromatography is generally not necessary for product purification. Its operational simplicity, gram-scale oxidation, and the ability to successively reuse the catalyst, make this new methodology environmentally benign and cost effective. The generality of this methodology gives it the potential to be used on an industrial scale.

Keywords: iron; molecular oxygen; oxidation; polyoxometalates; water.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't