title: Ruthenium-catalyzed oxidative cleavage of alkynes to carboxylic acids.
abstract: We describe an efficient method for the oxidative cleavage of alkynes to carboxylic acids using a combination of RuO(2)/Oxone/NaHCO(3) in a CH(3)CN/H(2)O/EtOAc solvent system. Both internal and terminal alkynes, regardless of their electron density, can be oxidized to carboxylic acids in excellent yield (up to 99%). (1)H NMR spectroscopy and ESI-MS experiments provided evidence for alpha-diketones and anhydrides as possible intermediates in these oxidation reactions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China. yangdan@hku.hk
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ze-Min
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Dan-Wei
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Zhang