Oxidative cleavage of olefins by in situ-generated catalytic 3,4,5,6-tetramethyl-2-iodoxybenzoic acid/oxone.

Oxidative cleavage of a variety of olefins to the corresponding ketones/carboxylic acids is shown to occur in a facile manner with 3,4,5,6-tetramethyl-2-iodobenzoic acid (TetMe-IA)/oxone. The simple methodology involves mere stirring of the olefin and catalytic amount (10 mol %) of TetMe-IA and oxone in acetonitrile-water mixture (1:1, v/v) at rt. The reaction mechanism involves initial dihydroxylation of the olefin with oxone, oxidative cleavage by the in situ-generated 3,4,5,6-tetramethyl-2-iodoxybenzoic acid (TetMe-IBX), and oxidation of the aldehyde functionality to the corresponding acid with oxone. Differences in the reactivities of electron-rich and electron-poor double bonds have been exploited to demonstrate chemoselective oxidative cleavage in substrates containing two double bonds.