A highly active organocatalyst for alcohol oxidation has been developed. 9-Azanoradamantane N-oxyl (Nor-AZADO 4), constituting an unhindered, stable nitroxyl radical, exhibits superior catalytic activity to 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) and AZADOs in the oxidation of alcohols to their corresponding carbonyl compounds.Key words organocatalyst; nitroxyl radical; alcohol oxidation; aerobic oxidation; 2-azaadamantane N-oxyl AZADO The oxidation of alcohols to their corresponding carbonyl compounds is one of the most fundamental transformations in both laboratory synthesis and industrial manufacturing, and numerous methods of such oxidation have been developed.1,2) In recent years, a stable class of nitroxyl radicals, as exemplified by TEMPO [2,2,6,6-tetramethyl piperidinyl 1-oxyl (1); Fig. 1], has been extensively used as a catalyst for the oxidation of alcohols in a wide range of chemistry. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] In particular, TEMPO-catalyzed alcohol oxidation has high priority in the pharmaceutical industry as an efficient, mild, and environmentally acceptable method. However, TEMPO is often inefficient in the oxidation of structurally hindered alcohols, posing a problem in the oxidation of secondary alcohols.We have recently reported that a less-hindered class of nitroxyl radicals, namely, 2-azaadamantane N-oxyls [AZADOs; AZADO (2a) and 1-Me-AZADO (2b)] and 9-azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonane N-oxyl [ABNO (3)], exhibit significantly enhanced reactivity compared with TEMPO.20-26) They exhibit extremely high activities toward a wide range of alcohols, including structurally hindered secondary alcohols that TEMPO fails to efficiently oxidize. 20,21) A structure-activity comparison indicated that the steric congestion near the active center exerts a critical impact on catalytic efficiency. 20) In our continuous interest in nitroxyl-radical-based oxidation, we envisaged that the catalytic activity of nitroxyl radicals can further be enhanced by reducing the steric factors around their active center. We herein report the advanced catalytic activity of 9-azanoradamantane N-oxyl [Nor-AZADO (4); Fig. 1]. This new catalyst exhibits superior catalytic efficiency to AZADO, 1-Me-AZADO and ABNO as well as to TEMPO.Nor-AZADO (4) was firstly synthesized in 1978 by Dupeyre and Rassat and reported to be a stable class of nitroxyl radicals.27) To the best of our knowledge, however, no study of Nor-AZADO has been reported since then. We were particularly interested in determining whether Nor-AZADO, which is a constraint variant of AZADO, produces the oxoammonium ions, which are useful for alcohol oxidation.Nor-AZADO was prepared in five steps from acetonedicarboxylic acid (5), glutaraldehyde, and benzylamine, by a previous method (Chart 1) with slight modification.