Copper-Catalyzed Aerobic Oxidations of Organic Molecules: Pathways for Two-Electron Oxidation with a Four-Electron Oxidant and a One-Electron Redox-Active Catalyst

Selective oxidation reactions have extraordinary value in organic chemistry, ranging from the conversion of petrochemical feedstocks into industrial chemicals and polymer precursors to the introduction of heteroatom functional groups into pharmaceutical and agrochemical intermediates. Molecular oxygen (O2) would be the ideal oxidant for these transformations. Whereas many commodity-scale oxidations of simple hydrocarbon feedstocks employ O2 as an oxidant, methods for selective oxidation of more complex molecules bearing diverse functional groups are often incompatible with existing aerobic oxidation methods. The latter limitation provides the basis for our interest in the development of new catalytic…

• CA
  Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation
• EL
  Eli Lilly and Company
• P
  Pfizer
• M
  Merck
• AC
  American Chemical Society
• BE
  Basic Energy Sciences

  Award: DE-FG02-05ER15690