An expedient osmium(<scp>vi</scp>)/K₃Fe(CN)₆-mediated selective oxidation of benzylic, allylic and propargylic alcohols

Abstract

A chemoselective osmium(VI) catalyzed oxidation of benzylic, allylic and propargylic alcohols using K3Fe(CN)6 as a secondary oxidant is described. This protocol is operationally simple and exhibits excellent chemoselectivity favouring the oxidation of benzylic alcohols over the aliphatic alcohols. A larger scale reaction was also found to be compatible.