Unprecedented Catalytic Wet Oxidation of Glucose to Succinic Acid Induced by the Addition of n-Butylamine to a Ru(III) Catalyst.

A new pathway for the catalytic wet oxidation (CWO) of glucose is described. Employing a cationic Ru@MNP catalyst, succinic acid is obtained in unprecedently high yield (87.5 %) for a >99.9 % conversion of glucose, most probably through a free radical mechanism combined with catalytic didehydroxylation of vicinal diols and hydrogenation of the resulted unsaturated intermediate.