This presentation will disclose our recent reaction development efforts in the area of clay-based aerobic oxidation chemistry. This unique area of research was initiated after a surprising observation of partial dehydrogenation of some compounds in the presence of commercially available Montmorillonites which are generally considered to be solely Bronsted and Lewis acids without redox activity.[1] In the past months, we have undertaken a comprehensive investigation of the potential of natural and synthetic iron-containing clays to catalyze aerobic oxidations of various substrates under solvent free conditions. The results of our screening suggest that synthetic Ferrihydrite and Nontronite clays have a unique capacity to activate oxygen to enable dehydroaromatizations and other oxidative processes. We aim to introduce these re-usable catalysts in the coming years as valuable new redox tools for synthetic chemists.<br/><br/>[1] Varma, R. S. Tetrahedron 2002, 58(7), 1235-1255.

Synthetic clays as new catalysts for aerobic oxidation

249th National Meeting (2015)

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