Oxidation of Alkanes by Dioxygen Catalysed by Phoactivated Iron Porphyrins

Cycloalkanes were oxidized by O2 itself under mild conditions (22-degrees-C; 200 Torr of O2) in the presence of catalytic amounts of a polyhalogenated porphyrin-iron(III)-hydroxo complex irradiated with light of wavelength between 350 and 450 nm; these oxidations occurred without consumption of a reducing agent, selectively transformed cyclohexane into cyclohexanone under appropriate conditions (about 0.2 turnover per min), and did not involve Fe(v) = O active species but, more probably, iron-alkylperoxo intermediates.