Ruthenium-Catalyzed C-H Hydroxylation in Aqueous Acid Enables Selective Functionalization of Amine Derivatives

The identification, optimization, and evaluation of a new catalytic protocol for sp(3) C-H hydroxylation is described. Reactions are performed in aqueous acid using a bis(bipyridine)Ru catalyst to enable oxidation of substrates possessing basic amine functional groups. Tertiary and benzylic C-H hydroxylation is strongly favored over N-oxidation for numerous amine derivatives. With terpene-derived substrates, similar trends in reactivity toward tertiary and benzylic C-H bonds are observed. Hydroxylation of chiral tertiary centers is enantiospecific in spite of the ionizing strength of the reaction medium. Preliminary kinetics experiments show a marked difference in reactivity between isomeric cis- and trans-Ru catalysts suggesting that the catalyst is configurationally stable under the reaction conditions.