Highly efficient transformation of ethylbenzene into acetophenone catalyzed by NHPI/Co(II) using molecular oxygen in hexafluoropropan-2-ol

Acetophenone is an important industrial intermediate and generally produced by the Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction, suffering from a low reactivity and serious equipment corrosion. Direct oxidation of ethylbenzene to acetophenone by molecular oxygen will be benign and cost-effective. The catalytic performance of NHPI/Co(II) herein was investigated by selective oxidation of ethylbenzene to acetophenone in different solvents at room temperature. The solvent hexafluoropropan-2-ol (HFIP) was found to markedly enhance the transformation efficiency from ethylbenzene to acetophenone in comparison with acetic acid, pyridine and ethanol, and the ethylbenzene conversion and the selectivity to acetophenone was high up to 87.9 % and 61.2 %, respectively. A higher concentration of phthalimide-N-oxyl (PINO) radicals was observed by an in situ electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometer (EPR) in HFIP with respect to other solvents, suggesting that HFIP may facilitate the generation of the N-oxyl radical and thus promote the selective oxidation of ethylbenzene to acetophenone. Furthermore, the benzylic carbon radical (PhCHCH3) from ethylbenzene was trapped by tetramethylpiperidine N-oxyl radical (TEMPO) and observed by a high resolution mass spectrometer. The findings of both PINO and PhCHCH3 under reaction conditions indicated that the selective oxidation of ethylbenzene to acetophenone catalyzed by NHPI/Co(II) should proceed via a radical mode. The selective oxidation of ethylbenzene to acetophenone using molecular oxygen by NHPI/Co(II) in HFIP exhibited an important industrial application prospect.