Oxidation chemistry in the undergraduate organic curriculum typically depends upon the use of hazardous reactants, such as chromium reagents. Green chemistry literature suggests that safer oxidation conditions are necessary in the synthetic tool box available to chemists.In this project, we combined a previously published method for catalytic oxidation of a-hydroxyketones with a modern microwave-assisted approach. We have studied the effect of time, temperature, catalyst, and substrate on reaction metrics such as percentage yield and e-factor. Our method is superior to the traditional method on the basis of several of the '12 Principles of Green Chemistry': prevention of waste, design for energy efficiency, and use of catalysis. This method of oxidizing benzoin provides a fast, efficient procedure, producing a useful product that could be used in a multistep reaction sequence.Typical reaction:

Greener synthetic methods for the undergraduate laboratory curriculum: Microwave-assisted catalytic oxidation of alcohols

247th National Meeting (2014)

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