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.

Keywords:

• benzene
• lanthanide(III) metal triflate
• nitration
• nitrogen dioxide
• oxygen
• solid oxides

Acknowledgment

We thank the Zhejiang Natural Science Foundation, China (Y404033), for financial support.