Olefin epoxidation and catalysis

Scents are everywhere. One of the earliest and best known historical references to odourants appear in the Bible. In the popular scene when Three Wise Men from the East presented baby Jesus with frankincense and myrrh. In fact the Bible mentions many other scents and fragrant oils. This reminds us that in the past the main source of scents were plants. But as it gets ever more difficult to harvest smells from nature a novel and synthetic routes of manufacture have to be developed. Vital is the fact that they all should comply to the green chemistry principles. This book is an account of the study into the chemistry of alloocimene oxidation and decomposition. An important intermediate of sandalwood aroma, one of the oldest and most expensive perfumery raw materials. But it also provides a bigger picture of olefin epoxidation discussing the mechanism of the process, oxidising agents and the use of catalysts. In particular gold nanoparticles, which begun their outstanding career with the application to cleaning contaminated air. It is addressed to a wide audience including students, chemistry professionals and all interested not necessarily experts in advanced chemical science.