Meeting the demand for sustainable oxidation chemistry requires development of chemistry that directly couples substrate oxidation to O2 reduction. The use of O2 in synthesis is challenging because it is a ground state triplet and because the complete utilization of O2 as a chemical oxidant requires the choreographed delivery of four proton and electron equivalents. Substantial progress has been made in the development of aerobic oxidation catalysis by either 1) developing designer ligands that facilitate direct oxidation of low-valent catalyst intermediates by O2, or 2) by developing redox mediators, which act as redox relays between O2 reduction and catalyst oxidation. Both of these strategies are effective for low-valent catalytic cycles, but complementary chemistry needs to be developed to provide access to high-valent catalyst intermediates if aerobic oxidation is to achieve broad utility. In this talk we will discuss our efforts to develop redox mediators that are strong oxidants and thus provide access to high-valent catalyst intermediates and the application of these mediators to the oxidation of C–H bonds, olefins, and aromatic compounds.

New redox mediators for aerobic C–H oxidation chemistry

254th National Meeting (2017)

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