Liquid Phase Oxidation of Cyclohexene Over Selenite Doped MCM-41

Liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexene was carried out under mild reaction conditions over selenite doped MCM-41 using aqueous hydrogen peroxide as oxidant and acetic acid as solvent. The major products of the reaction were 2-acetoxycyclohexanol and a small amount of 1,2-cyclohexanediol. The catalyst exhibited very high substrate conversion (similar to 100%) and good product (2-acetoxycyclohexanol) selectivity (81%) and it can be reused with almost the same activity. The catalyst was characterized by a combination of various physicochemical techniques, such as N-2 physisorption, TEM, X-ray diffraction and FT-IR.