Oxidations of alkanes, alkenes, and aromatic rings with pyridine
N-oxides are efficiently catalyzed by ruthenium porphyrins under mild conditions. We show here that the oxidation of
N-acyl cyclic amines with Ru
IVtetraarylporphyrin dichloride-2,6-substituted pyridine
N-oxides directly gives
N-acyl amino acids in modest to good yield
via oxidative C-N bond cleavage.
N-Acylpyrrolidines and
N-acylpiperidines were converted to
N-acyl-
-aminobutyric acids and
N-acyl-
-aminovaleric acids, respectively. This type of reaction is a novel one in which the C-N bond is cleaved selectively at the less substituted carbon. Notably, the proline residue in proline-containing peptides was selectively converted to glutamate. A large intramolecular kinetic isotope effect (
kH/
kD = 9.8) was observed in the oxidation of
N-benzoyl[2,2,-
d2]pyrrolidine, indicating that the reaction should involve an
-hydrogen atom abstraction process as the rate-determining step.
N-Acylcarbaldehyde, the putative intermediate ring-opened form of
-hydroxylated
N-acyl cyclic amine, was readily oxidized with the oxidizing system to afford the corresponding
N-acylamino acid in good yield. Further, lactams (1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and 1-methyl- 2-piperidone) were also oxidized to give the corresponding imides (1-methylsuccinimide and 1-methylpiperidine-2,6-dione).