Oxidation of alcohols with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a new triple-site phosphotungstate

A new clean catalytic process for the selective oxidation of alcohol to ketones has been studied. The catalytic properties were investigated with aqueous hydrogen peroxide under halide-and organic solvent-free conditions. The results show that triethyl({2,4,6-trimethyl-3,5-bis[(triethylazaniumyl)methyl]phenyl}methyl)azanium (tribromide) based phosphotungstate complex (TBAP) has excellent catalytic ability to the oxidation reaction of alcohol by hydrogen peroxide with high yield. Moreover this catalyst could be easily recovered by simple workup and reused up without any appreciable loss of its activity.