Copper‐Mediated Selective Oxidation of a CH Bond

Abstract

An environmentally friendly procedure has been developed for the oxidation of 2,4,6-trimethylphenol (TMP) at the para Cequation/tex2gif-inf-1.gif–H bond. Upon reaction with H2O2 in the presence of catalytic amounts of CuII and neocuproine in methanol at 65 °C, 4-(methoxymethyl)-2,6-dimethylphenol (MDP) or 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethylbenzaldehyde (HDB) is formed (see reaction). Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under http://www.wiley-vch.de/contents/jc_2002/2005/z462946_s.pdf or from the author. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.