The compound R-(+)limonene is available and cheap than its oxidized products. Consequently, the selective oxidation of R(+)limonene has attracted attention as a promising process for the production of compounds with a higher market value, such as cis/trans-1,2-limoneneoxide, cis/trans-carveol and/or carvone. One of the these processes, described in the recent literature, is submission of R-(+)limonene to an oxidation reaction catalyzed by neutral or cationic Metal(Salen) complexes, in the presence of effective terminal oxidants such as NaOCl or PhIO. These reactions are commonly carried out in organic solvents (dichromethane, ethyl acetate, acetonitrile or acetone). Thus, the main objective of the present work was to study the effect of several factors (type of oxidant, catalyst, solvent and time) on reaction selectivity for the high-priced compounds referred to above. For this purposes, experimental statistical multivariate analysis was used in conjunction with a complete experimental design. From the results it was observed that for the three targeted products (1,2-limoneneoxide, carveol or carvone) some factors, including the nature of the terminal oxidant and the catalyst, were significant for product selectivity (with a confidence level of 95%). Therefore, this statistical analysis proved to be suitable for choosing of the best reaction conditions for a specific desired product.
R(+)-limonene; Salen; Experimental design; Catalysis; Oxidation
