Homogeneous CuCl2/TMEDA/TEMPO-Catalyzed chemoselective base- and halogen- free aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols in mild conditions

This article describes the developing of a base-and halogen-free homogeneous system aiming to chemoselectively oxidize allyl, furyl, aryl and heteroaryl primary alcohols. The current easy-to-handle aerobic system uses few amounts of CuCl2/TMEDA/TEMPO system under mild reaction conditions to produce aldehydes in high yields. Moreover, the CuCl2/TMEDA cyclic voltammetry was measured for the first time, disclosing that TMEDA as ligand substantially affects the redox potential (E1/2) of the couple E1/2Cu2+/Cu+ to E1/2Cu2+/Cu+-TMEDA by 454 mV in the redox system.

Automated summary

A new base-and halogen-free homogeneous oxidation system was developed in this study, aiming to selectively oxidize allyl, furyl, aryl, and heteroaryl primary alcohols. The system uses CuCl2/TMEDA/TEMPO with mild reaction conditions to produce aldehydes in high yields, and TMEDA as a ligand significantly affects the redox potential in the system.