Practical and versatile oxidation of alcohol using novel Na2WO4-H2O2 system under neutral conditions

This paper presents a novel Na2WO4-H2O2 oxidation system. The oxidation of alcohol to ketone or aldehyde was carried out by using N,N-dimethylacetamide, hydrogen peroxide, and a catalytic amount of disodium tungstate dihydrate under neutral conditions. This method is very simple, practical for large-scale manufacturing, and applicable to a variety of substrates including an acid-sensitive substrate. Disodium tetraperoxotungstate dihydrate (Na-2[W(O-2)(4)]center dot 2H(2)O) was isolated from a mixture of N,N-dimethylacetamide, hydrogen peroxide, and disodium tungstate dihydrate, and a proposal reaction mechanism is discussed in this paper. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.