Acc Chem Res. 2017 Jul 18;50(7):1640-1653. doi: 10.1021/acs.accounts.7b00108. Epub 2017 Jun 21.
Accounts of chemical research
Yu-Feng Liang, Ning Jiao
PMID: 28636366 DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.7b00108
The selective oxidation of organic molecules is a fundamentally important component of modern synthetic chemistry. In the past decades, direct oxidative C-H and C-C bond functionalization has proved to be one of the most efficient and straightforward methods to synthesize complex products from simple and readily available starting materials. Among these oxidative processes, the use of molecular oxygen as a green and sustainable oxidant has attracted considerable attention because of its highly atom-economical, abundant, and environmentally friendly characteristics. The development of new protocols using molecular oxygen as an ideal oxidant is highly desirable in oxidation chemistry. More importantly, the oxygenation reaction of simple molecules using molecular oxygen as the oxygen source offers one of the most ideal processes for the construction of O-containing compounds. Aerobic oxidation and oxygenation by enzymes, such as monooxygenase, tyrosinase, and dopamine β-monooxygenase, have been observed in some biological C-H bond hydroxylation processes. Encouraged by these biological transformations, transition-metal- or organocatalyst-catalyzed oxygenation through dioxygen activation has attracted academic and industrial prospects. In this Account, we describe some advances from our group in oxygenation via C-H/C-C bond activation with molecular oxygen as the oxidant and oxygen source for the synthesis of O-containing compounds. Under an atmosphere of O
