Liquid oxidation of cyclohexane to cyclohexanol over cerium-doped MCM-41

Liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexane was carried out under mild reaction conditions over mesoporous Ce-MCM-41 catalysts using aqueous hydrogen peroxide (30%) as oxidant and acetic acid as solvent without adding any initiator. The catalysts exhibited high substrate conversion and good product (cyclohexanol) selectivity and it can be reused once with almost the same activity. The catalyst was characterized by a combination of various physicochemical techniques, such as N2 physisorption, diffuse reflectance UV–vis, X-ray diffraction and FT-IR.

Graphical abstractCe-MCM-41 presented high substrate conversion and good product (cyclohexanol) selectivity for the oxidation of the cyclohexane under relatively mild reaction conditions in acetic acid using aqueous hydrogen peroxide as oxidant without adding any initiator. The catalyst can be reused once without losing the activity. Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide