Aerobic oxidation of cycloalkenes catalyzed by iron metal organic framework containing N-hydroxyphthalimide

Iron metal organic framework [Fe(BTC)] loaded with N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) promotes the aerobic oxidation of (cyclo)alkenes to give variable percentages of allylic oxidation products and the corresponding epoxide, dependidng on the nature of the substrate. In the case of cyclopentene and cyclohexene, aerobic oxidation catalyzed by NHPI/Fe(BTC) renders their corresponding unsaturated cyclic alcohol and ketone with 97% selectivity in 5 h at 6% and 12% conversion, respectively. Under the same experimental conditions, cyclooctene exhibited 95% selectivity toward the formation of cyclooctene oxide with 2% of cyclooctenol/one at 4 h. Cycloheptene as susbstrate exhibits an intermediate behavior, and the aerobic oxidation catalyzed by NHPI/Fe(BTC) leads to the formation of cycloheptenol/cycloheptenone with 77% selectivity, accompanied by 23% of cycloheptene oxide at 4 h. Further experiments with non-symmetric olefins exhibited also a mixture of products including epoxides and allyic products. A mechanism to explain these experimental results has been proposed.

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► The catalytic aerobic oxidation of alkenes is reported.
► Fe(BTC) loaded with N-hydroxyphthalimide acts as heterogeneous and reusable catalyst.
► Cyclopentene and cyclohexene undergo allylic oxidation.
► Cyclooctane undergoes catalytic epoxidation by oxygen.