Transition Metal‐Free Aerobic Oxidation of Aryl Secondary and Primary Alcohols to Carbonyl Compounds in Open Air

Abstract

AbstractThe ketones and benzoic acids are very useful chemicals as the precursors and intermediates in both laboratory and synthetic industrial applications, which are usually obtained by selective catalytic oxidation of alcohols using a amount of certain expensive oxidants or metal catalysts. Here, an efficient and practical oxidation the aryl secondary and primary alcohols to corresponding carbonyl compounds using NaOtBu in open air at room temperature has been developed. And utilizing NaOtBu/air/ toluene, a series of ketones or benzoic acids were obtained from secondary and primary alcohols in high yields, respectively. More importantly, most of the substrates with electron‐withdrawing or electron‐donating groups could be converted to the corresponding products in high to excellent yields. Furthermore, the practicality of the reaction was demonstrated through 1.0 gram‐scale reaction with excellent yield.