Osmium tetroxide-catalysed oxidation of olefins

Abstract

A wide range of olefins are oxidised by osmium tetroxide in aqueous alkaline solution and the OsV1" is reduced to OsVT or O S * ~ If the pH is kept in the range 8.5-1 2.5, it is possible to reoxidise the osmium compound to its initial state with oxygen at atmospheric pressure. Under these conditions osmium tetroxide acts as an oxidation catalyst. Simple alcohols, glycols, glycerol, acetone, and glucose are also oxidised under these conditions ; the products are usually oxalic acid and carbon dioxide. Styrene gives benzoic acid and carbon dioxide.

The crystal and molecular structure of oxobis(ethane-1,2-diolato)osmium(VI): a five-coordinate diester complex

“…Osmium tetroxide is a specific reagent in organic chemistry for the cis-hydroxylation of olefinic double bonds (Cairns & Roberts, 1968), and it is widely used as a staining and fixation agent for the examination of biological tissues by electron microscopy (Hayat, 1970;Riemersma, 1970). Although the action of OsO4 on tissue has been known for a long time (e.g.…”

Pour un Parlement fédéral plus démocratique

“…Depuis quelques années, on souligne de plus en plus à quel point notre système électoral déforme la représentation parlementaire de chaque parti politique (Cairns, 1968) et comment cela empêche la Chambre des communes de jouer pleinement son rôle d'institution unificatrice au sein de la société canadienne (Gibbins;1982).…”

Oxygen and Osmium—A New Alliance for Dihydroxylations?

“…[7] Usually these oxidations led to carboxylic acids but, under certain conditions, diols can be obtained. [8] Although it was already known that oxygen can add to several osmium complexes, [9] dioxygen is activated by this coordination and recently the first stable oxo complexes of osmium have been isolated. [10] Krief and Colaux-Castillo have used selenoxides as cooxidants for Os VI .…”