CHAPTER 4: Aerobic Oxidations Using Metal-free Heterogeneous Systems¹

Aerobic oxidation is a process of large industrial importance that requires of a catalyst to achieve selectivity to the wanted product. Currently, most of the catalysts for aerobic oxidations are transition metals, either soluble salts and complexes or supported on insoluble materials. Some of the metals are precious noble metals or critical raw materials. For the sake of sustainability there is a current interest in developing alternative catalysts for aerobic oxidation that are metal-free. The present review summarizes the state of the art in the use of various types of carbon nanoforms, including diamond nanoparticles and different graphene materials, as metal-free catalysts for aerobic oxidation. After an introductory section that describes the objective of the chapter, two specific sections describe the structure and properties of diamond nanoparticles and graphene-related materials. General mechanisms for aerobic oxidations are briefly summarized. The main body of the review is a summary of the state of the art in aerobic oxidation of different functional groups. The last section summarizes the review and contains our view on future developments of the field that is still in its early stages.