Oxygenation of aromatic hydrocarbons with hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by rhodium carbonyl complexes

• DOI: 10.1002/aoc.1459
• Publication Date: 2008-09-30T15:01:29Z
• Authors: Georgiy B. Shul'pin; Dmitriy V. Muratov; Lidia S. Shul'pina; Aleksandr R. Kudinov; Tatyana V. Strelkova; Pavel V. Petrovskiy
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

AbstractHexanuclear rhodium carbonyl cluster, Rh6(CO)16, catalyzes benzene hydroxylation with hydrogen peroxide in acetonitrile solution. Phenol and (at lower concentration) quinone are formed with the maximum attained total yield and turnover number 17% and 683, respectively. Certain other rhodium carbonyl complexes, containing cyclopentadienyl ligands, Rh2Cp2(CO)3 and Rh3(CpMe)3(CO)3, are less efficient catalysts. Cyclopentadienyl derivatives of rhodium which do not contain the carbonyl ligands, Rh(CpMe5)(CH2CH2)2, RhCp(cyclooctatetraene) and Rh2Cp2(cyclooctatetraene) turned out to be absolutely inactive in the benzene hydroxylation. Styrene is transformed into benzaldehyde and (at lower concentration) acetophenone and 1‐phenylethanol. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.