Singh, S; Singh, M; Singh, KN
The efficient use of tetraethylammonium bromide as phase transfer catalyst has led to explore synthetically useful reactions of tetraethylammonium superoxide with a variety of alpha-diketones. The substrates, furil 1a, 4,4'-dimethylbenzil 1b, 4,4'-dimethoxybenzil 1c, 4,4'-dibromobenzil 1d, 9,10-phenanthroquinone 1e, 1,2-naphthoquinone 1f, (+/-) camphorquinone 1g and 2,2'-pyridil 1h are oxidatively cleaved to furnish 2-furancarboxylic acid 2a, p-methylbenzoic acid 2b, p-methoxybenzoic acid 2c, p-bromobenzoic acid 2d, 2,2'-biphenyldicarboxylic acid 2e, phthalic acid 2f, (+/-) camphoric acid 2g and 2-pyridinecarboxylic acid 2h respectively, in reasonably good yields under the present set of mild reaction conditions.