Organic Letters 2000-11-01

100 selective oxygenation of p-xylene to p-tolualdehyde via photoinduced electron transfer

Ohkubo, Fukuzumi

Index: Org. Lett. 2(23) , 3647-50, (2000)

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Abstract

The 100% selective oxygenation of p-xylene to p-tolualdehyde is initiated by photoinduced electron transfer from p-xylene to the singlet excited state of 10-methyl-9-phenylacridinium ion under visible light irradiation, yielding p-tolualdehyde exclusively as the final oxygenated product. The reason for the high selectivity in the photocatalytic oxygenation of p-xylene is discussed on the basis of the photoinduced electron transfer mechanism.