Roth terminal and internal olefins can he efficiently converted to ketones in Dolyethylene glycol and water using palladium chloride as the catalyst. Recently, we described the application of phase transfer catalysis to the palladium catalyzed oxidation of olefins to ketones'. This is a useful reaction for terminal olefins, since the conditions are mild and the yields are good. However, internal olefins fail to react under these conditions. Polyethylene glycols (pEGI have been employed as phase transfer agents and as solvents for promoting a variety of reactions2 including the alkoxylation of halobenzenes3 and the reduction of alkynes by sodium borohydride and palladium chloride.q The fact that polyethylene glycols are cheap makes them attractive from an industrial viewpoint. It seemed conceivable to us that the application of PEGCs'J to the palladium(II1 catalyzed olefin oxidation reaction would result in enhanced reactivity compared with the phase transfer process with quaternary ammonium salts. Ne now wish to report that both terminal and internal olefins are oxidized to ketones using polyethylene glycols. Nhen 1-decene was exposed to oxygen in a mixture of PEG-400 and water, with palladium chloride used as the catalyst and cupric chloride as re-oxidant 1'25 mmol/lmmol/lD mmol/ZDml/