Critical role of the coordination environment of palladium dichloride on the course of its reaction with secondary benzylic alcohols:: Selective oxidation or etherification catalysts

In refluxing 1,2-dichloroethane under an argon atmosphere, 1-indanol led to a high yield of 1-indanone in the presence of sodium carbonate and catalytic amounts of (R4N)(2)PdCl4 while the use of PdCl2-(RCN)(2) as catalyst afforded di(1-indanyl) oxide quantitatively. These distinct reactive pathways would be due to the different electronic properties of the catalysts. The etherification reaction is limited to primary and secondary benzylic alcohols.