Electrocatalytic oxidation of alcohols using substituted N-hydroxyphthalimides as catalysts

The electrocatalytic oxidation of several alcohols was performed using a new series of substituted N-hydroxyphthalimides as catalysts. The substitution in the N-hydroxyphthalimide structure by electron withdrawing or donor substituents has a beneficial effect on the efficiency of the electrocatalytic oxidation of borneol, used as a model, although the progressive degradation of the catalysts during preparative electrolyses is observed. In the case of lowest activated alcohols such as 2-octanol the use of the regular structure allows the best chemical yield in the corresponding carbonyl compounds to be obtained. Moreover, primary;alcohol oxidation under anaerobic conditions leads to the corresponding aldehyde exclusively, whereas in the presence of molecular oxygen a mixture of the corresponding aldehyde and carboxylic acid is obtained. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.