Recent advances in metal-catalysed oxidation reactions.

Oxidation reactions are vital tools in synthetic organic chemistry. Oxidation of organic species such as alcohols, phenols, aldehydes and ketones provides synthetically valuable organic compounds, especially synthetic intermediates for several biologically active compounds. Some of these synthetic intermediates have shown their synthetic utility in the total synthesis of natural products.

Non-Palladium-Catalyzed Oxidative Coupling Reactions Using Hypervalent Iodine Reagents.

Transition metal-catalyzed direct oxidative coupling reactions via C-H bond activation have emerged as a straightforward strategy for the construction of complex molecules in organic synthesis. The direct transformation of C-H bonds into carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds renders the requirement of prefunctionalization of starting materials and, therefore, represents a more efficient alternative to the traditional cross-coupling reactions. The key to the unprecedented progress made in this area has been the identification of an appropriate oxidant that facilitates oxidation and provides heteroatom ligands at the metal center.