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Published on: April 4, 2014
100 selective oxygenation of p-xylene to p-tolualdehyde via photoinduced electron transfer
1Department of Material and Life Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, CREST, Japan, and Science and Technology Corporation, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Abstract:
The 100% selective oxygenation of p-xylene to p-tolualdehyde is initiated by photoinduced electron transfer from p-xylene to the singlet excited state of 10-methyl-9-phenylacridinium ion under visible light irradiation, yielding p-tolualdehyde exclusively as the final oxygenated product. The reason for the high selectivity in the photocatalytic oxygenation of p-xylene is discussed on the basis of the photoinduced electron transfer mechanism.
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