Dehydrogenative Synthesis of Linear α,β-Unsaturated Aldehydes with Oxygen at Room Temperature Enabled by tBuONO

Mei-Mei Wang, Xiao-Shan Ning, Jian-Ping Qu, and Yan-Biao Kang*
Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China

ACS Catal., 2017, 7, pp 4000–4003

DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.7b01008

Synthesis of linear α,β-unsaturated aldehydes via a room-temperature oxidative dehydrogenation has been realized by the cocatalysis of an organic nitrite and palladium with molecular oxygen as the sole clean oxidant. Linear α,β-unsaturated aldehydes could be efficiently prepared under aerobic catalytic conditions directly from the corresponding saturated linear aldehydes. Besides linear products, the aromatic analogy could also be smoothly achieved by the same standard method. The organic nitrite redox cocatalyst and alcohol solvent play a key role for realizing this method.