Hydrocarbon oxidation by antimony pentafluoride

Acid-catalyzed hydrocarbon conversion processes such as isomerization, alkylation, and cracking are industrial transformations of high economic importance. The common key step in these reactions is the formation of the reactive trivalent carbocations. In this work, they report experimental proof of the direct oxidation of isobutane by antimony pentafluoride to the tert-butyl cation. The presence of a proton trap shows that the proton is not essential for this ionization process.