A facile sym-collidinium chlorochromate (S-COCC) catalyzed (2 mol%) oxidations of alcohols to aldehydes or ketones using 1 equiv of H5IO6 as oxidant in acetonitril at room temperature with excellent yields is described. A mild and efficient method has been optimized for S-COCC catalyst by considering the effect of various parameters such as the reaction time, the amount of catalyst and the reusability of the catalyst after several runs without modification. Furthermore, over oxidation of aldehydes to carboxylic acids is not observed by this method. Theoretical calculations on the compounds were carried out at the B3LYP/6-31G level. The geometry optimization, atomic charges, isotropic shielding value (σiso), thermodynamic parameters, frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs) and molecular electrostatic potentials (MEPs) were discussed.
