The mechanism of catalytic oxidation of cyclopentene with aqueous hydrogen peroxide to prepare glutaraldehyde in a tungstic acid-tert-butanol system is that, first, cyclopentene was oxidized to cyclopentene oxide almost quant.; then the latter was turned into the intermediate b-hydroxycyclopentyl peroxide (I). At room temperature, I can be rearranged almost completely into glutaraldehyde catalyzed by W(VI) in a system containing excessive hydrogen peroxide.

Key words: REACTION MECHANISM, INFRARED SPECTROPHOTOMETRY, GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY, PROTON MAGNETIC RESONANCE SPECTROMETRY, HYDROGEN PEROXIDE, CATALYTIC OXIDATION, PENTANEDIAL, CYCLOPENTENE, CHROMATOGRAPHY-MASS SPECTROGRAPHY