Catalytic oxidation of alcohols using Fe-bTAML and NaClO: Comparing the reactivity of Fe(V)O and Fe(IV)O intermediates

Abstract

We demonstrate the selective oxidation of secondary alcohols and activated primary alcohols to their corresponding aldehydes or ketones using Fe-bTAML as the catalyst and sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) as the oxidant. Good to excellent yields of 80%–99% for the carbonyl compounds and turnover numbers up to ∼500 was obtained with this catalytic system. The reactions are clean, performed under mild conditions (air, room temperature) and yielded sodium chloride as the only by-product. The yield and turnover number were dependent on the pH of the reaction and this difference was attributed to the different reactive intermediates that was formed at pH 7 and pH 12 (FeV(O) and FeIV(O) respectively). Reactions involving the FeV(O) intermediate oxidize secondary alcohols more efficiently than its FeIV(O) analog. This trend was reversed for the oxidation of activated primary alcohols where reactions involving FeIV(O) afforded much higher TON’s. This reactivity trend can be explained from the differences in bond dissociation energy (BDE) of their corresponding one electron reduced species ([FeIV-OH], ∼99 kcal/mol; [FeIII-OH], ∼83 kcal/mol) as well as their relative stabilities in the solvent during reaction. This catalytic system was found to be unsuitable for nonconjugated primary alcohol due to the formation of the inactive FeIV(OMe) intermediate after one catalytic cycle.