Abstract
A catalyst system consisting of copper (I) chloride, sodium 2-picolinate (PIC) and TEMPO has been found to be effective in the aerobic oxidative conversion of benzylic alcohols with aqueous ammonia to nitriles in the absence of organic solvent. Various benzyl alcohols were converted to their corresponding nitriles in high yields. The ligand PIC can be easily removed from the reaction mixture due to its water solubility, allowing for easy product purification.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 21476057), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, China (Grant nos. B2016202393, B2015202284) and the Program for the Top Young Innovative Talents of Hebei Province, China (Grant no. BJ2017010).
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Yuan, L., Yin, G., Zhang, Hy. et al. Aerobic oxidative conversion of benzylic alcohols with ammonia to nitriles catalyzed by CuCl/TEMPO/PIC. Chem. Pap. 72, 2679–2685 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-018-0468-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-018-0468-9