•Novel in situ copper(I) iodide schiff base catalysts.•High activity for the aerobic oxidation of benzylic, allylic and aliphatic alcohols.•Quantitative yields for benzaldehyde in 3 h with a catalyst loading of 2.5 mol%.•Diol oxidation to the corresponding lactol. We report here novel Cu(I) thiophene carbaldimine catalysts for the selective aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols to their corresponding aldehydes and various diols to lactones or lactols. In the presence of the in situ generated Cu(I) species, a persistent radical (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperdine-N-oxyl (TEMPO)) and N-methylimidazole (NMI) as an auxiliary ligand, the reaction proceeds under aerobic conditions and at ambient temperature. Especially the catalytic system of 1-(thiophen-2-yl)-N-(4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenyl)methanimine (ligand L2) with copper(I)-iodide showed high reactivity for all kind of alcohols (benzylic, allylic and aliphatic). In the case of benzyl alcohol even 2.5 mol% of copper loading gave quantitative yield. Beside high activity under aerobic conditions, the catalysts ability to oxidize 1,5-pentadiol to the corresponding lactol (86% in 4 h) and N-phenyldiethanolamine to the corresponding morpholine derivate lactol (86% in 24 h) is particularly noteworthy. Display omitted