Dehydrogenation

The development of catalytic methods for alcohol oxidation with oxygen or air has been one of the most pursued target in the last few years owing to the irgency of substituting stoichiometric reagents. In addition the use of anaerobic conditions would overcome safety concerns related with the use of oxygen in the presence of organic solvents. The great attitude of copper catalysts towards hydrogen transfer can be exploited for the dehydrogenation of alcohols on the presence of am hydrogen acceptor in order to set up a clean reaction protocol for the anaerobic oxidation of alcohols into the corresponding ketones.

References:
[1] F. Zaccheria, N. Ravasio, R. Psaro, A. Fusi, “Anaerobic oxidation of non-activated secondary alcohols over Cu/Al₂O₃”, Chemical Communications, 2005, 253-255.
[2] F. Zaccheria, N. Ravasio, R. Psaro, A. Fusi , “Synthetic scope of alcohols  transfer dehydrogenation catalysed by Cu/Al₂O₃: a new metallic catalyst with unusual selectivity” , Chem. Eur. J., 2006, 24, 6426-6431.