Continuous flow aerobic alcohol oxidation using a heterogeneous Ru0 catalyst

The continuous selective aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol in flow was developed using an immobilized Ru-0 catalyst. After optimization of the reaction conditions, the stability and productivity of the equipment were examined over time using tert-amyl alcohol as solvent, and no deactivation occurred. A cumulative TON close to 15000 was obtained with a constant activity (TOF = 4 min(-1)). A semi-empirical kinetic rate expression was proposed.