IBX works efficiently under solvent free conditions in ball milling

Abstract

IBX (2-iodoxybenzoic acid), discovered in 1893, is an oxidant in synthetic chemistry whose extensive use is impeded by its explosiveness at high temperature and poor solubility in common organic solvents except DMSO. Since the discovery of Dess–Martin Periodinane in 1983, several modified IBX systems have been reported. However, under ball milling conditions, IBX works efficiently with various organic functionalities at ambient temperature under solvent free conditions. Also, the waste IBA (2-iodosobenzoic acid) produced from the reactions was in situ oxidized to IBX in the following step using oxone and thus reused for multiple cycles by conserving its efficiency (only ∼6% loss after 15 cycles). This work describes an overview of a highly economical synthetic methodology which overcomes the problems of using IBX, efficiently in gram scale and in a non-explosive way.