Activation of Dioxygen by Cobaloxime and Nitric Oxide for Efficient TEMPO-Catalyzed Oxidation of Alcohols

The aerobic oxidation of alcohols to their corresponding carbonyl compounds could be efficiently accomplished by using the combination of cobalt nitrate, dimethylglyoxime and 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl (TEMPO) as a novel catalytic system, and various alcohols including primary and secondary benzylic, allylic and aliphatic alcohols could be quantitatively converted to the corresponding aldehydes or ketones at 70 degrees C under 0.4 MPa dioxygen pressure in dichloromethane. During the oxidation, the in situ generated cobaloxime and nitric oxide (NO) were responsible for the activation of dioxygen, respectively, thereby, two concerted catalytic routes exist: cobaloxime-activating-dioxygen TEMPO-catalyzed and NO-activating-dioxygen TEMPO-catalyzed aerobic oxidation of alcohols.