A highly chemoselective oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl products with iodosobenzene diacetate mediated by chromium(III)(salen) complexes:: Synthetic and mechanistic aspects
The catalytic oxidation of the allylic alcohols 1d-n with iodosobenzene diacetate, mediated by the [Cr-III(salen)]X complex, affords the respective enones in excellent chemoselectivity for Cl- as counterion [complex A(Cl)], while for the counterions TfO- [complex A(TfO)] and PF6- [complex A(PF6)] nearly equal amounts of enone and epoxide are observed. This counterion-dependent oxidation of allylic alcohols by Cr-III(salen) complexes is rationalized in terms of Lewis acid catalysis by the complex A(CI) and redox catalysis for A(TfO) and A(PF6).