Nitroxyl radical/PhI(OAc)2: one-pot oxidative cleavage of vicinal diols to (di)carboxylic acids.

A mild and user-friendly one-pot oxidative cleavage of vicinal diols to their corresponding (di)carboxylic acids using AZADOs and PhI(OAc)(2) is described. 1,2-Diols and 2,3-diols as well as 1,2,3-triol gave one- or two-carbon-unit-shorter carboxylic acids. Internal vicinal diols also smoothly underwent one-pot oxidative cleavage to afford the corresponding dicarboxylic acids. Cyclic vicinal diols are converted to their corresponding open-form dicarboxylic acids.