Spectral characteristics and redox behavior of the polynuclear managanese(III,IV) complex [Mn12O12(CH3COO)16(H2O)4] in liquid-phase oxidation of benzene

We have shown that benzene is oxidized to phenol by the polynuclear manganese complex Mn₁₂O₁₂(CH₃COO)₁₆(H₂O)₄] in acetonitrile solution at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, with better than 80% selectivity. We have established that introduction of oxygen from the air into the reaction mixture as the reoxidant does not make it a catalytic process. L. V. Pisarzhevskii Institute of Physical Chemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 31 Prospekt Nauki, Kiev 252039, Ukraine. Translated fromTeoreticheskaya i éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 99–102, March–April, 1999.