Direct Selective Aerobic Catalyzed Oxidation of Methylarenes to Benzaldehyde Derivatives in HFIP as Hydrogen Bond Donor Medium

Hydrogen Bond Donor (HBD) medium can be used to control reaction selectivity by stabilizing Hydrogen Bond Acceptor (HBA) products . This concept is applied in the aerobic catalyzed Co(II)/N-Hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) oxidation of methylarenes to selectively form benzaldehyde derivatives at ambient temperature with no trace of benzoic acid using 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoropropan-2-ol (HFIP) as the reaction medium.