PTCs promoted biphasic oxidation of ethylbenzene catalyzed by NHPI and CoSPc

An easy workup and environmentally friendly method to convert ethylbenzene into the corresponding oxides, catalyzed by a combined catalytic system consisting of NHPI and CoSPc, was developed in a water involved liquid–liquid heterogeneous system. Experimental results showed that the reaction performed well facilitated by PTCs at multigrams material level, under which the conversion rate of ethylbenzene and the selectivity of acetophenone reached 60.6% and 95.2% after 0.5 h of reaction in oxygen atmosphere. An oxidation process was proposed at the end of this paper.