Hydrotalcites as catalysts for the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation of cyclic ketones with hydrogen peroxide/benzonitrile

Hydrotalcites (HTs) in variable Mg/Al ratios were used as catalysts for the Baeyer-Villiger (BV) oxidation of cyclic ketones with hydrogen peroxide. All HTs studied were found to be active in the BV oxidation of cyclohexanone, their activity increases with increasing Mg/Al ratio. The reaction, which was conducted under very mild conditions (viz. atmospheric pressure and a temperature of 70 °C), provided conversions above 70% with 100% selectivity only after 6 h. This outcome was found to require the presence of a nitrile in the reaction medium, so a mechanism involving adsorption of the nitrile and cyclohexanone onto the catalyst is proposed that is consistent with the experimental results. Based on the proposed mechanism, the presence of a surfactant should result in improved conversion and catalytic activity, as was indeed observed with sodium dodecylsulfate in the reaction medium. The best catalyst among those tested was used with other cyclic ketones and found to provide excellent conversion and selectivity results in most cases.