Room-temperature catalytic oxidation of alcohols with the polyoxovanadate salt Cs₅(V₁₄As₈O₄₂Cl)

While many known methods for oxidation mediated by polyoxometalates (POMs) employ environmentally friendly co-oxidants, they tend to employ large catalyst loadings (e.g. 40 mol%) and costly high reaction temperatures (~90-135 °C) that potentially contribute to the degradation of the catalyst and reduce their effectiveness. Herein, we present some initial results demonstrating a room temperature catalytic oxidation using the reduced salt-inclusion polyoxometalate, Cs₅(V₁₄As₈O₄₂Cl), that contains polyoxovanadate (POV) clusters as an efficient catalyst (e.g., 2 mol%) in the transformation of secondary alcohols to their corresponding ketones in very good to quantitative yields. Further, the catalyst can be suspended on celite and recycled.