Novel Atom‐Economic Nitration of Benzene with a Nitrogen Dioxide–Oxygen System using Cocatalyst of Solid Oxides and Lanthanide(III) Metal Triflates

Abstract Benzene is nitrated by a novel atom‐economic nitration procedure with a NO2‐O2 system in the presence of a mixture of solid oxides and Ln(OTf)3. The only by‐product in this novel method is water. The efficiency of NO2 is much high than 50%, the theoretical efficiency of NO2 of the known methods. Among the solid oxides and Ln(OTf)3 studied, HZSM‐5 and Sm(OTf)3 were the most efficient catalysts in this process. Therewith, the yield of the benzene nitration reached 72.5%, calculated by NO2.