“Dark” Singlet Oxygenation of Hydrophobic Substrates in Environmentally Friendly Microemulsions

The molybdate-catalyzed “dark” singlet oxygenation of hydrophobic compounds with hydrogen peroxide proceeds efficiently with low catalyst loadings (10 –3 mol %) in chlorine-free w/o microemulsions. These micro-heterogeneous systems are composed of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)/n-butanol/water/organic phase, the latter being either a ”green” solvent such as ethyl acetate or a liquid substrate, such as α-terpinene or β-citronellol. Very high reactor yields with improved product/SDS ratio can be obtained for the ”dark” singlet oxygenation of such liquid substrates.