Mild and Chemoselective Synthesis of Lactones from Diols Using a Novel Metal-Ligand Bifunctional Catalyst.

A novel amino alcohol-based Ir bifunctional complex acts as an efficient catalyst for oxidative lactonization of 1,4- or 1,5-diols with a substrate-to-catalyst molar ratio of 200−1000 in acetone or butanone. The reaction proceeds with broad functional group tolerance to give lactone in high yield at room temperature. The catalyst precursor Cp*IrCl[OCH2C(C6H5)2NH2] is isolated and characterized by a single-crystal X-ray analysis.