Baeyer-Villiger Oxidation of Cyclic Ketones Catalyzed by Amino Acid Ionic Liquids

A series of amino-acid-based ionic liquids was synthesized via one-step protonation of the corresponding L-amino acid by utilizing an array of proton sources. The catalytic activity of the amino-acid-based ionic liquids for the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of cyclic ketones was investigated using cyclopentanone as a model cycloketone. The proline-based ionic liquid ProH]CF₃SO₃ was shown to exhibit the best catalytic activity. The reaction condition was optimized to give the following reagent ratio of n(cyclopentanone):n(catalyst):n(H₂O₂)=1:0.06:4, 60℃ and 6 h. Under the optimum conditions, the conversion of cyclopentanone was 96.57% and the selectivity for δ-valerolactone was 73.01%. The catalytic activity was shown to be constant after 4 cycles. A simple treatment was allowed for the recover and the reuse of ProH]CF₃SO₃. The successful utilization of ProH]CF₃SO₃ to catalyze a host of cyclic ketones via Baeyer-Villiger oxidation clearly demonstrated the capacity of ProH]CF₃SO₃ to tolerate variation in the substrate.