Chloroacetate-promoted selective oxidation of heterobenzylic methylenes under copper catalysis.

The efficient selective oxidation and functionalization of C-H bonds with molecular oxygen and a copper catalyst to prepare the corresponding ketones was achieved with ethyl chloroacetate as a promoter. In this transformation, various substituted N-heterocyclic compounds were well tolerated. Preliminary mechanistic investigations indicated that organic radical species were involved in the overall process. The N-heterocyclic compounds and ethyl chloroacetate work synergistically to activate C-H bonds in the methylene group, which results in the easy generation of free radical intermediates, thus leading to the corresponding ketones in good yields.