When one thinks about the chemistry of alkenes, oxidative cleavage via ozonolysis will be close to the top of the list. Certainly in the top 5. Discovered by the Swiss chemist Friedrich Schönbein in 1839, this reaction remains -both academically and industrially- a highly efficient, sustainable method for introducing oxygen into both simple feedstock materials

Oxidation of allylic alcohols to enones, although on paper a simple reaction, usually requires insidiously toxic metals or metalloids such as chromium and selenium or hazardous peroxy- reagents.1 Scale-up of these methods remains particularly challenging. A team from GSK found themselves in precisely this position when developing a synthetic route to a steroid-derived HIV maturation