Abstract

The discovery in 1959 of stable nitroxide-based free radicals such as the prototypical 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) led to their use as electron spin resonance (ESR) spin labels in chemistry, biomedicine, and materials science. These nitroxides are prepared by the oxidation of secondary amines that contain no hydrogen atoms on the alpha-carbons. The unique redox properties of nitroxides enable their use as oxidants in organic synthesis. The varied preparation and uses of oxoammonium salts as stoichiometric oxidants for alcohols are one subject of this review. Oxoammonium ions as oxidants for alcohols have a number of advantages, for example, the method is heavy-metal free and some of the reactions can be performed in water or aqueous mixtures. A few side reactions are associated with these oxidations. The most serious is the fast reaction of the oxoammonium ion with free amines

The several ways these oxidation reactions can be carried out are discussed in detail.

They are: Oxidations using stoichiometric quantities of preformed oxoammonium salts carried out in either acidic, neutral, or basic conditions; reactions in which stoichiometric quantities of oxoammonium salts are generated in situ by disproportionation of a nitroxide in the presence of a strong acid; nitroxide-catalyzed oxidations using a secondary oxidant; efficient nitroxide-catalyzed oxidations of primary alcohols to carboxylic acids; and oxidations of primary alcohols or hemiacetals that can lead to lactones.