Facile access to versatile functional groups from alcohol by single multifunctional reusable catalyst

•We report multistep tandem oxidation process by Cs promoted mesoporous manganese oxides.•Seven different functional groups (imine, imidazole, cyanide, amide, lactone, ester and olefin) are evolved from a single substrate (alcohol).•A unique multiple esterification reaction from a single aliphatic alcohol is reported.•The observed catalysis is truly heterogeneous and the catalyst can be reused without any loss of catalytic performance.•The developed one pot protocol is versatile, cost effective, and environmentally benign.

Tandem oxidation processes enabling one-pot multistep reactions received great attention as an efficient synthetic methodology for construction of complex molecules from simple substrates by a single operation. We report here tandem oxidative transformations of seven different functional groups (imine, imidazole, cyanide, amide, lactone, ester and olefin) from a single substrate (alcohol) by a single cesium promoted mesoporous manganese oxide catalyst (meso Cs/MnOx). High conversions were obtained with a broad range of substrates including aliphatic long chain alcohols. The catalyst can be reused without any loss of catalytic activity. We also demonstrated a unique multiple esterification reaction from a single aliphatic alcohol under aerobic atmospheric conditions catalyzed by meso Cs/MnOx.

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