Inha University Foundation

Bon-Su Lee

Young-gyu Kim

Yoon-Sik Lee

Kyoo-Hyun Chung

The nitration of aromatic compounds is achieved in high yield and selectivity by using oxygen activated by an inorganic catalyst and nitrogen dioxide. Since this process uses neither concentration nitric nor sulfuric acids, the generation of spent waste acid does not occur. Furthermore, the process does not encounter the problem of high costs associated with the generation of ozone as in an alternative nitration process. Since the solubility of oxygen in a reaction medium is increased by using pressurized oxygen, nitrogen dioxide is activated by a porous inorganic oxide and thus an aromatic compound(e.g., benzene) is nitrated into a nitro compound (e.g., PhNO2), the reaction rate is significantly increased, and the recovery of reactants is easy due to the insolubility of the catalyst.

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Inchon, South Korea

Bon-Su Lee