A mild and efficient H2O2 oxygenation of N-heteroaromatic compounds to the amine N-oxides and KI deoxygenation back to the tertiary amine with hexaphenyloxodiphosphonium triflate

A mild and efficient method for the oxidation of N-heteroaromatic compounds to the corresponding N-oxides using H2O2 in the presence of hexaphenyloxodiphosphnium triflate (Hendrickson reagent) in EtOH at room temperature was reported. This methodology presented relatively fast and selective reactions to afford the N-oxides in good yields. The reverse reactions, deoxygenation reactions, were also carried out under the same reaction conditions by KI to produce the tertiary amines.