Selective Aerobic Oxygenation of Tertiary Allylic Alcohols with Molecular Oxygen

Abstract Aerobic epoxidation of tertiary allylic alcohols remains a significant challenge. Reported here is an efficient and highly chemoselective copper‐catalyzed epoxidation and semipinacol rearrangement reaction of tertiary allylic alcohols with molecular oxygen. The solvent 1,4‐dioxane activates dioxygen, thereby precluding the addition of a sacrificial reductant.