19The Baeyer-Villiger oxidation is an organic reaction in which a ketone is oxidized to an ester by treatment with peroxy acids or hydrogen peroxide.[1][2] Key features of the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation are its stereospecificity and predictable regiochemistry.[3] It is named after the German chemist Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (1835-1917) and the Swiss chemist Victor Villiger (1868-1934).
Reagents typically used to carry out this rearrangement are meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid (mCPBA), peroxyacetic acid, or peroxytrifluoroacetic acid.[4] Reactive or strained ketones (cyclobutanones, norbornanones) react with hydrogen peroxide or hydroperoxides to form lactones. The original reagent in the 1899 publication is Caro's acid discovered just a year earlier.[5] Disodium phosphate or sodium bicarbonate is often added as a buffering agent to prevent transesterification or hydrolysis.