Toward a Unified Mechanism for Oxoammonium Salt-Mediated Oxidation Reactions: A Theoretical and Experimental Study Using a Hydride Transfer Model

A range of oxoammonium salt-based oxidation reactions have been explored computationally using density functional theory (DFT), and the results have been correlated with experimentally derived trends in reactivity. Mechanistically, most reactions involve a formal hydride transfer from an activated C-H bond to the oxygen atom of the oxoammonium cation. Several new potential modes of reactivity have been uncovered and validated experimentally.