Oxidation of N-methyl-9-t-butylacridane by iodosylbenzene catalyzed by tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl) porphyrin iron(III). A tool to investigate the mechanism of the oxidative N-demethylation of aromatic tertiary amines

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/S0040-4039(99)01023-0

The PhIO promoted oxidation of N-methyl-9-t-butylacridane (1) catalyzed by tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl) porphyrin iron(III) leads first to 9-t- butylacridane and then to acridine. It is suggested that 1 can represent a reliable machanistic probe to detect the intervention of radical cations in the oxidation of aromatic amines.