Selective Aerobic Oxidation of Benzylic Alcohols Catalyzed by Carbon-Based Catalysts: A Nonmetallic Oxidation System

摘要

Selective oxidation is of great importance in organic synthesis, and green, efficient, selective oxidation techniques are highly sought after in the chemical industry. In particular, selective oxidation of alcohols is a fundamental transformation in the synthesis of fine chemicals. Recently, aerobic oxidation processes have received increasing attention, as oxygen or air are used as the terminal oxidant to replace the stoichiometric metal oxides such as chromates and manganese oxides. The use of oxygen has great benefits from both economic and green chemistry viewpoints, because oxygen is relatively cheap and produces water as the only byproduct. Accordingly, varied heterogeneous and homogenous catalysts derived from precious metals have been developed for this purpose, for example, Pt, Ru, Pd, Au, and Ag. However, because of their rarity and high price, precious metals are impractical for industrial use.