From methylarenes to esters: efficient oxidative Csp3–H activation promoted by CuO decorated magnetic reduced graphene oxide

Abstract

Magnetic reduced graphene oxide supported CuO (rGO/Fe₃O₄–CuO) as a heterogeneous catalyst in cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) reactions has been demonstrated for the synthesis of esters using methyl aromatics and aldehydes/benzyl alcohols as coupling partners. Various benzylic esters were prepared efficiently from cheap raw chemicals by employing tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as a “green” oxidant and tetra-n-butylammonium bromide (TBAB)/tetra-n-butylammonium iodide (TBAI) as additives. Because of the heterogeneous nature of this catalytic system, simple filtration was used to separate the catalyst.