Surfactant-Assisted Selective Oxidation of Aromatic Amines to Nitro Compounds by in Situ-Formed Performic Acid

Development of novel and greener methods for the selective oxidation of various organic compounds is a challenging task. Herein, a novel protocol for the selective oxidation of aromatic amines to nitroaromatics at room temperature is developed. The oxidation reaction was carried out using a mixture of formic acid and aqueous hydrogen peroxide, which resulted in the in situ formation of performic acid. Further, improvement of selectivity was studied using different surfactants, of which cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) gave the highest selectivity (85%) toward nitrobenzene. The role of CTAB in achieving higher selectivity is discussed. Under optimized reaction conditions, various substituted amines were successfully oxidized to corresponding nitro compounds. It is worth mentioning that this is the first report on oxidation of amines to nitro compounds in an aqueous medium with high selectivity.

Iron-catalyzed aerobic oxidative functionalization of sp3 C–H bonds: a versatile strategy for the construction of N-heterocycles

Iron-catalyzed aerobic oxidative functionalization of sp³ C–H bonds using a biofriendly iron catalyst in combination with O₂ or air as the sole oxidant has been developed for the construction of N-heterocycles from easily available carboxylic acid derivatives and o-substituted anilines.

Iron-catalyzed/mediated oxidative transformation of C–H bonds

Iron-catalyzed/mediated C–H bond oxidation has been demonstrated as one of practical and straightforward tools in synthetic chemistry.