Effective oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes with hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by Pd (OAc)2/SO under solvent-free conditions

With oxygen that was supplied by hydrogen peroxide as oxidant, secondary and primary aliphatic alcohols, primary allylic alcohols could be efficiently oxidized to aldehydes or ketones in high yields in the presence of Pd (OAc)2−sodium oxalate (SO) under solvent-free conditions, it is a high yielding and operationally simple method. Acetic acid is testified to attend the reaction, the acetate ligands are environed to serve two purposes: as a ligand for the PdII center and as a base to deprotonate the Pd-bound alcohol, but acetic acid has not shown in previous bidentate ligands systems, so a mechanism is proposed on the basis of the mechanisms reported by the pioneers.