How do you oxidize primary alcohol to form an aldehyde?
1 Answer
May 15, 2016
Carefully.
Explanation:
As you are no doubt aware, the problem in oxidizing the alcohol is stopping at the aldehyde stage. It would be very easy to oxidize the ipso carbon completely to give a carboxylic acid.
There should be a few selective oxidants, for instance chromic oxide in pyridine, that would stop at the aldehyde. I had colleagues who would use regular chromic acid for these oxidations. They monitored the oxidation very carefully by TLC, and quenched the process abruptly.
