Hydrogen peroxide induced iodine transfer into alkenes

Abstract

Reactions of alkenes with elemental iodine activated by 30% aqueous hydrogen peroxide in the presence of methanol or water as the external nucleophile source result in the formation of vicinal iodo-alkoxy or iodo-hydroxy substituted alkanes. Beside the fact that only 0.5 equiv. or a slight excess of hydrogen peroxide and 0.5 equiv. of iodine are sufficient amounts of reactants, this transformation is conducted in the absence of acid, thus contributing significantly to the green chemistry concept.