We have recently reported two distinct reaction types for the cobalt-catalyzed, specific oxidation of organic substrates. IJ In one, coordination of 0, to the metal ion was shown to enhance the basicity3 and radical4 reactivity of the bound 0,. These features were shown to be important in the cobalt (I1)-catalyzed oxidation of substituted phenols where it was demonstrated that metal-bound O2 was a reactive intermediate. In the second reaction ...
