Oxidizing alcohol without TEMPO

The Arndtsen and Lumb research groups jointly report a copper-catalyzed aerobic oxidation of alcohols without the use of traditional N-oxide co-oxidants. The tyrosinase inspired Cu-diamine complex efficiently mediates the oxidation of both activated and un-activated alcohols at ambient pressure and temperature. Our catalyst proceeds through a different mechanistic pathway with regards to traditional systems and as result, demonstrates complementary chemoselectivity to existing methods.  This work was recently published in Angewandte Chemie.