A Well‐Defined Complex for Palladium‐Catalyzed Aerobic Oxidation of Alcohols: Design, Synthesis, and Mechanistic Considerations

A breath of fresh air: A variety of alcohols are oxidized using 0.5–0.1 mol % of the catalyst, and in some cases the oxidation can simply be carried out open to the air (see scheme). Mechanistic insight into the mechanism is provided by a crystal structure that shows remarkable hydrogen bonds between the coordinated water and acetate ligands and an unprecedented large kinetic isotope effect.