Liquid phase oxidation of 2-methylnaphthalene to 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone over lanthanum doped MCM-41

Liquid phase oxidation of 2-methylnaphthalene was carried out under mild reaction conditions over lanthanum doped MCM-41 using aqueous hydrogen peroxide (30%) as oxidant and acetic acid as solvent without adding any initiator. The catalyst exhibited very high substrate conversion (95.8%) and reasonable product (2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone) selectivity (69.3%) under mild condition. Fast hot catalyst filtration experiment proved that the catalyst acted as a heterogeneous one and it can be reused two times without losing its activity to a greater extent. A possible mechanism was proposed.