Facile Perhydrolysis of Oxetanes Catalyzed by Molybdenum Species

Perhydrolysis of a range of tertiary oxetanes was achieved in synthetically useful yields under mild conditions. Different functional/protecting groups were tolerated. Similar ring-opening of secondary oxetanes, which had been unfeasible to date, was also realized with ease. With the aid of optically active substrates the perhydrolysis was shown to proceed with significant stereoselectivity