Graphene oxide-iron phthalocyanine catalyzed aerobic oxidation of alcohols

Highly active catalyst based on iron phthalocyanine covalently supported on graphene oxide nanosheets was synthesized which contained 12% w/w FePc as active phase. The synthesized catalyst was used for the selective oxidation of various alcohols to the corresponding aldehyde and ketone derivatives by molecular oxygen under environmentally-friendly conditions. Prepared materials were characterized by TGA, FT-IR, TEM, XPS, and XRD techniques. The results showed that the catalyst could be easily recovered and reused for several times without significant loss of activity and selectivity. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.