A FUEL-CELL FOR THE PARTIAL OXIDATION OF CYCLOHEXANE AND AROMATICS AT AMBIENT-TEMPERATURES

THE great interest in the catalytic partial oxidation of alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons is motivated by a need to find new industrial routes for processing these hydrocarbons, available from natural fuels, selectively and in one step under mild conditions1-5. Here we report the partial oxidation of saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons at the cathode of an O2/H2 fuel cell at ambient temperatures. With a cathode comprising a mixture of alkaline-earth or rare-earth metal chlorides and graphite, catalytic synthesis of cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone from cyclohexane was effected with 100% selectivity. Among the catalysts tested, SmCl3/graphite was the most active. The same fuel-cell system is effective also for hydroxylation of benzene and toluene. The mechanism may involve generation of active oxygen on the cathode by the normal O2/H2 fuel-cell reaction. © 1990 Nature Publishing Group.