Mechanistic investigations of the iridium(III)-catalyzed aerobic oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols.

The commercially available catalysts [(Cp*IrCl2)2] is employed with O2 as the terminal oxidant in the presence of catalytic amounts of Et3N for the aerobic oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols. A new mechanism for the Ir-catalyzed aerobic oxidation is also presented that suggests that the transition metal maintains its +3 oxidation state throughout the entire catalytic cycle.