Singlet oxygen oxidation of organic substrates

1. A process for the oxidation of organic substrates by means of 1 O 2 , which consists of adding 40–60% strength H 2 O 2 to hydrophobic organic substrates which react with 1 O 2 in a monohydric C 1 –C 8 alcohol as a solvent in the presence of 5–25 mol % of a homogeneous molybdate catalyst, whereupon H 2 O 2 is catalytically decomposed to give water and 1 O 2 , oxidizing said substrate to the corresponding oxidation products with precipitation of the catalyst, removing said precipitated catalyst by centrifugation or filtration and recycling said catalyst to said oxidation.

2. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the substrates which react with 1 O 2 are olefins which contain 1 to 10 C═C double bonds; C 6 –C 50 phenols, polyalkylbenzenes, polyalkoxybenzenes; polycyclic aromatics having 2 to 10 aromatic rings; alkyl sulfides, alkenyl sulfides, aryl sulfides which are either mono- or disubstituted on the sulfur atom, and C 4 –C 60 heterocycles having an O, N or S atom in the ring, which may be unsubstituted or may be mono- or polysubstituted by halogens, cyanide, carbonyl groups, hydroxyl groups, C 1 –C 50 alkoxy groups, C 1 –C 50 alkyl groups, C 6 –C 50 aryl groups, C 2 –C 50 alkenyl groups, C 2 –C 50 alkynyl groups, carboxylic acid groups, ester groups, amide groups, amino groups, nitro groups, silyl groups, silyloxy groups, sulfone groups, sulfoxide groups or by one or more NR 1 R 2 radicals in which R 1 or R 2 may be identical or different and are H; C 1 –C 50 alkyl; formyl; C 2 –C 50 acyl, C 7 –C 50 benzoyl, where R 1 and R 2 may also together form a ring.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the reaction temperature is between 0 and 50° C.

4. The process of claim 2 wherein the reaction temperature is 15 to 35° C.

5. The process of claim 1 wherein 2 to 10 equivalents of H 2 O 2 are used depending on the substrate used.