Aerobic photo-oxidative cleavage of the C–C double bonds of styrenes

Carbon tetrabromide enables us to carry out oxidative cleavage of the C–C double bonds of styrenes under aerobic photo-irradiation conditions. Oxidative cleavage of the various β-substituted styrenes produced benzoic acid in good yields. Since this reaction is found to be applicable to the α- or β-substituted styrenes, which showed very low reactivity under our previous cleavage reaction condition with FSM-16 and I2, this reaction can be used complementarily.