Pyrazinium Salts as Efficient Organocatalysts of Mild Oxidations with Hydrogen Peroxide

A series of 3-substituted pyrazinium tetrafluoroborates was prepared as simple analogues of flavinium salts which are efficient organocatalysts for oxidations with hydrogen peroxide. It was shown that pyrazinium derivatives with an electron-withdrawing substituent catalyze mild oxidations of sulfides to sulfoxides and Baeyer-Villiger oxidations in a similar way to flavinium catalysts. The most reactive catalyst, 3-cyanopyrazinium tetrafluoroborate, was efficiently employed in preparative sulfoxidations of aromatic and aliphatic sulfides as well as in Baeyer-Villiger oxidations of cyclobutanones. A proposed mechanism for the catalysis is based on the formation of pyrazine hydroperoxide which is the agent oxidizing the substrate.