Platinum complexes for selective oxidations in water

Platinum complexes in catalysis were the first to utilize hydrogen peroxide in oxidation reactions, resulting successful in epoxidation, sulfoxidation, Baeyer-Villiger oxidations. This ability is due to the soft Lewis acidic character of these complexes, along with some peculiar properties of Pt that make it unique among late transition metals. Among these properties is the full compatibility of some phosphine Pt-complexes with water, thus opening the way to the use of aqueous micellar media to perform oxidations. Improved activities and selectivities at any level (chemo-, regio-, enantio-) were observed because of specific complex/micelle interactions capable of decreasing the activation energy of certain pathways involved in oxidation processes