A simple and efficient oxidation of primary and secondary benzylamines to acids using table salt in aqueous medium

Herein, we have developed a novel, simple, efficient method for the oxidation of aromatic benzylamines to corresponding acids using common table salt in aqueous medium. Oxidation of benzylamine was achieved by using NaCl (20 mol%) as a catalyst, NaOH (4 equiv) and TBHP (5 equiv) as oxidant, in moderate to good yields (34–84%). Control experiments revealed that in situ generated ClO2− ion is the active form of the catalyst. This methodology can also be scaled up for easy accessibility to the industrially important terephthalic acid as well. This investigation provided a facile entry of various primary as well as secondary benzylamines with wide range of functional group tolerance.