A commercial breakthrough in alcohol oxidation.(ChementatoR)(Nissan Chemical Industries Ltd.)(Brief article)

Nissan Chemical Industries Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan; edlinks.che.comJ7373-538) is commercializing "ultra-highly active" catalysts, based on the catalyst technology developed by professor Yoshiharu Iwabuchi of the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan), which catalyzes the oxidation of alcohols into carbonyl compounds. Conventional catalysts, such as 2,2,6,6-tetraethyl piperidine-N-oxyl (TEMPO) derivatives, are ineffective for oxidizing sterically hindered alcohols, limiting their applicability to primary alcohols. The activity of the new catalyst is said to be about 20 times greater than TEMPO derivatives, and yields are typically over 90% at …