Oxidative Transformations of Organic Compounds Mediated by Redox Molecular Sieves

Zeolites are viewed by some as the “philosopher's stone” of modern chemistry.^1] They are more or less indispensable in oil refining and petrochemicals manufacture where they are widely applied as solid acid catalysts. More recently attention has been focused on their use in the manufacture of fine chemicals. The synthetic utility of zeolites and related molecular sieves (zeotypes) has been considerably extended by the incorporation of redox metals into their frameworks. The resulting redox molecular sieves catalyze a variety of selective oxidations under mild conditions in the liquid phase. Their structural diversity–including variation of the redox metal, incorporation of metal complexes, and the size and polarity of the micropores–provides the possibility of designing tailor-made solid catalysts (“mineral enzymes”) for liquid-phase oxidations with clean oxidants such as O₂, H₂O₂, and RO₂H. Hence, they have enormous potential in industrial organic synthesis as environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional oxidations employing inorganic oxidants in stoichiometric amounts. A primary aim of this review is to familiarize organic chemists with the synthetic potential of redox molecular sieves. An outline of their synthesis, structures, and chemical properties, highlighting their unique advantages, is followed by a discussion of general (mechanistic) features that influence the choice of a suitable catalyst for a particular type of oxidation. The main part of the review deals with the oxidation of various substrates of synthetic interest–such as alkanes, alkenes, (alkyl)arenes, alcohols, and amines–and emphasizes the advantages of redox molecular sieves (including selectivity and stability) over their homogeneous counterparts. New directions towards truly biomimetic solid catalysts, for example zeolite-encapsulated chiral metal complexes as heterogeneous catalysts for asymmetric oxidations, are high-lighted.