Selective catalytic oxidations by palladium and manganese: Selectivity, reactivity and mechanistic studies

What is the difference between fire and life? Both are essentially oxidations with oxygen; the difference is selectivity and sustainability. In this dissertation the goal was primarily achieving control over oxidation chemistry to gain selectivity using environmentally friendly palladium and manganese based catalyst system.
In this dissertation, the original goal – to achieve selectivity and control over the oxidation of alkenes, alcohols and alkanes for applications in chemical synthesis– has to, a large extent, been achieved. The most important results were solving a 20 year old challenge of achieving highly selective anti-Markovnikov oxidation of alkenes and an environmentally benign method for the epoxidation of alkenes. The key challenge remaining in the palladium catalysed AM oxidation of alkenes is to move further and use oxygen as a terminal oxidant, most probably through regeneration of the benzoquinone used. With respect to oxidation with the manganese/picolinic acid catalyst system, key questions remain regarding the mechanism by which these reactions take place and equally to apply this system in multistep catalytic oxidations to access other functionalities.