Nitrone or Oxaziridine? Further Insights into the Selectivity of Imine Oxidation Catalyzed by Methyltrioxorhenium

The oxidation of imines may give several products, such as oxaziridines, nitrones, amides, and other rearranged compounds. Therefore, its selectivity is a challenge that various methods have to face. The controversial selectivity of the oxidation of imines using urea hydrogen peroxide (UHP) catalyzed by methyltrioxorhenium (MTO) is addressed by varying the solvent, temperature, reaction time, amount of oxidant, and catalyst used. The reactivity and selectivity of the oxidation of imines proved to be particularly sensitive to the type of solvent. The use of methanol furnished the corresponding nitrones as the exclusive products, except for very hindered N-tert-alkyl substituted substrates. Using the ionic liquid [bmim]BF₄ as a solvent resulted in a complete switch in reactivity and selectivity. N-methyl substituted imines gave the corresponding amides, while imines with bulkier substituents at nitrogen did not show any reactivity. An exception was the C-phenyl,N-tert-butyl imine—the only substrate that was oxidized to the corresponding oxaziridine, albeit with low conversion. The results reported herein reaffirm the oxidation of imines with UHP/MTO in MeOH as the method of choice for their interconversion to nitrones.