Highly efficient epoxidation of electron-deficient olefins with tetrabutylammonium peroxydisulfate

The epoxidation of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds such as enones and enals was efficiently achieved with tetrabutylammonium peroxydisulfate in the presence of equimolar amounts of hydrogen peroxide and NaOH in acetonitrile or methanol at 25 °C in excellent yields. Base-sensitive substrate such as cinnamaldehyde could be successfully epoxidized in short reaction time under mild reaction conditions.