Catalytic oxidations of alcohols - Advances in Catalytic Activation of Dioxygen by Metal Complexes - page 140

Separate experiments showed that the molecular sieves accelerated the
decomposition of under the reaction conditions. Presumably, another
function of the molecular sieves is to remove the water produced in the
reaction, which may have a deleterious effect on the catalyst activity (but see
later). Although this methodology constitutes an improvement on those
previously reported, turnover frequencies were still generally

and,

hence, there is considerable room for further improvement.
Recently, we described the use of a water-soluble palladium(II)
complex of sulfonated bathophenanthroline as a stable, recyclable catalyst
for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols in a two-phase aqueous-organic
medium, e.g. in Reaction 16 65 .

Reactions were generally complete in 5 h at 100°C/30 bar air with as
little as 0.25m% catalyst. No organic solvent is required (unless the substrate