PREPARATIVE OXIDATION OF ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS IN MICROEMULSIONS WITH SINGLET OXYGEN GENERATED CHEMICALLY BY THE SODIUM MOLYBDATE HYDROGEN-PEROXIDE SYSTEM

A reverse (water in oil) microemulsion has been designed to oxidize hy drophobic organic substrates with singlet oxygen (O-1(2), (1) Delta(g) ) generated from the disproportionation of hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by molybdate ions. The microemulsion was prepared by mixing methylene chloride, sodium dodecylsulfate, n-butanol, and aqueous molybdate. Fl ash photolysis studies have shown that in such media singlet oxygen ex hibits a similar kinetic behavior that under homogeneous conditions (t au(Delta) approximate to 42 mu s). Various typical organic substrates have been oxidized on the preparative scale with this chemically gener ated singlet oxygen, and the expected oxidation products have been iso lated in high yields.