Dehydrogenative Aromatization of Saturated Aromatic Compounds by Graphite Oxide and Molecular Sieves

Graphite oxide (GO) has attracted much attention of material and catalysis chemists recently. Here we describe a combination of GO and molecular sieves for the dehydrogenative aromatization. GO prepared through improved Hummers method showed high oxidative activity in this reaction. Partially or fully saturated aromatic compounds were converted to their corresponding dehydrogenated aromatic products with fair to excellent conversions and selectivities. As both GO and molecular sieves are easily available, cheap, lowly toxic and have good tolerance to various functional groups, this reaction provides a facile approach toward aromatic compounds from their saturated precursors.