Alba Rodriguez-Otero

Selective catalytic oxidation of inactive aromatic C-H bonds is one of the most active research topics, but remains a long-term challenge.1 Phenol is one of the most important industrial chemical due to its wide application in the fields of phenolic resin, pharmaceutical products, agrochemicals, etc.2 However, the current industrial production of phenol is still limited to the three-step cumene process, which includes propylene benzene, autooxidation to cumene hydroperoxide and rearrangement of Hock.3 Here we describe for the first time the application of new kind of Cu nanobiohybrids as green and efficient catalysts in the oxidation of benzene to phenol in the presence of hydrogen peroxide in water at 30ºC with excellent results in final phenol yields.

References:
1) Acharyya, S. S. et al. ACS Catal. 2015, 5, 2850–2858.
2) Bal, R., Tada, M., Sasaki, T., Iwasawa, Y. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 448–452.
3) Wang, A. X., Chu,