Nitrile-Promoted Alkene Epoxidation with Urea–Hydrogen Peroxide (UHP)

Li Jia, Ya-Na Wanga, Chao Qiana* & Xin-Zhi Chena a Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering , Zhejiang University , Hangzhou , China * Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Zhejiang University, No. 38, Zheda Road, Hangzhou, 310027 , China E-mail: chemtec@163.com Abstract An efficient method for alkene epoxidation has been studied systematically using benzonitrile and the complex urea–hydrogen peroxide (UHP), which is an anhydrous form of hydrogen peroxide and has the potential to release hydrogen peroxide in a controlled manner and thus avoid the need to slowly add aqueous H2O2 to the reaction mixture. The absence of water in the reaction media was also beneficial, because it minimized undesired reactions of the oxidized products. A range of alkenes was epoxidized by this method, providing yields ranging from 79% to 96%. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Synthetic Communications® to view the free supplemental file.