Evidence of C–H bond activation dominating in both C6H12 oxidation and consequential C–C bond rupture

Selective C–H bond oxidation of cyclohexane into KA oil (ketone-alcohol) is of vital importance in both fundamental research and industrial applications while limited by complex reaction network and suffering from low efficiency. In this study, Ce(OH)SO 4 · x H 2 O was chosen as a probe to systematically investigate the C–H bond activation and C–C bond rupture as a function of various reaction parameters, including the reactant/product concentrations, catalyst applied, reaction temperatures, acidic concentrations etc, and found that bi-molecule of C 6 H 12 was probably involved in both C–H bond rupture and C–C bond cleavage and both were controlled by one deprotonation elementary step with ·O 2 – and h + as the key active components, which were supported by parity fittings and primary KIEs determined. In addition, the C–C bond rupture was found to be mainly following C 6 H 10 O to ε-caprolactone and further to linear acids reaction path. Hopefully, this study could help people find/optimize reaction systems in selective hydrocarbon upgradings.