An iron‐catalyzed process for the oxidation of saturated hydrocarbons (cycloalkanes and alkylarenes) to alcohols and ketones with aqueous H 2 O 2 in acetonitrile at room temperature is reported. Addition of a carboxylic acid increases the selectivity towards the ketone formation. Best results were obtained with ethylbenzene as substrate and acetic acid as additive, affording acetophenone as the main product.
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Pavan et al. (2005) studied this question.