Selective conversion of cyclohexane to cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone using a gold catalyst under mild conditions

The oxidation of cyclohexane to cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone are investigated using supported gold catalysts using mild conditions of temperature and pressure. These catalysts are found to show some limited activity at 70 °C. However, the gold catalysts do not exhibit significantly different behaviour from supported Pt or Pd catalysts, and the selectivity observed is solely a function of conversion which in turn is a function of reaction time. It is clear that at very low conversions very high selectivities can be observed, but high selectivity under these mild reaction conditions cannot be maintained at higher conversions.