Oxidations of allylic and benzylic alcohols under inductively-heated flow conditions with gold-doped superparamagnetic nanostructured particles as catalyst and oxygen as oxidant

A continuous flow protocol for the oxidation of allylic and benzylic alcohols to aldehydes and ketones, respectively, using oxygen gas or atmospheric air is reported. The key features of this work are gold nanoparticles that are attached to the surface of nanostructured core shell particles composed of an Fe3O4-containing core and a silica shell. These nanostructured particles exert superparamagnetic properties and thus inductively heat up in an external oscillating electromagnetic field, conditions under which the gold catalyst is able to perform these oxidation reactions.