Iron-Catalyzed One-Pot Oxidative Esterification of Aldehydes

A highly efficient, mild, and simple protocol for Fe(ClO4)(3)center dot xH(2)O-catalyzed oxidative esterification of aldehydes was developed. Several aromatic and aliphatic aldehydes reacted with simple primary and secondary alcohols, used as the solvent, smoothly in the presence of an iron salt catalyst (10 mol-%) and hydroperoxide (4 equiv.) as an oxidant to generate the corresponding esters in good to excellent yields. ((C) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009)