Direct amination of benzene to aniline by reactive distillation method over copper doped hierarchical TS-1 catalyst

We report an effective method for the direct amination of benzene to aniline where aqueous ammonia was employed as aminating agent with hydrogen peroxide as oxidant and copper doped hierarchical TS-1 as catalyst, using a reactive distillation reactor under mild conditions. A desirable aniline yield (12.4%) with excellent selectivity (84.7%) was obtained under optimized conditions. A probable catalytic pathway of benzene ammoxidation to aniline over hierarchical TS-1 or metal doped hierarchical TS-1 was proposed.