Oxidations of primary alcohols with a copper(II) complex as a possible galactose oxidase model

N,N′-(2-Hydroxy-propane-1,3-diyl)bis(salicylaldiminato)copper(II) was found to be an effective catalyst for the oxidation of ethanol, n-propanol, or hydroxyacetone in the presence of KOH under O2; the X-ray crystal structure shows that the co-ordination geometry of the copper is significantly distorted toward tetrahedral from square planar with two oxygens and two nitrogens from salicyladimine moieties.