How to make a primary alcohol from an alkane?

Alcohols can be made from alkyl halides, which can be made from alkanes. However $3° > 2° > 1° > 0°$ for alkyl halides synthesis from alkanes. What approach could make an alkane with primary and secondary carbons into only primary alcohols? 




Recently a research paper[[1]](https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc6688) has been published which claims to effectively convert *n*-alkanes into *n*-alcohols.


It proposes a quadruple relay catalysis for selective synthesis of *n*-alcohols from *n*-alkanes via the following reaction pathway:


[![quadruple relay catalysis for selective synthesis of n-alcohols from n-alkanes](https://i.stack.imgur.com/giViG.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/giViG.jpg)


The reaction seems to get yields higher than 75%. The paper itself goes into much detail about each catalyst and its role.


The only catch here is that as this is a hydromethylation, you need to start with an alkane which has one carbon less in its chain than the required alcohol.




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**Reference:**


[[1]](https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abc6688): Tang, X.; Gan, L.; Zhang, X.; Huang, Z. N-Alkanes to n-Alcohols: Formal Primary C─H Bond Hydroxymethylation via Quadruple Relay Catalysis. *Sci. Adv*. **2020**, 6 (47), eabc6688.


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