Mesoporous strong base supported cobalt oxide as a catalyst for the oxidation of ethylbenzene

A mesoporous solid strong base was applied to support cobalt oxide to obtain a strong base-type catalyst, which showed good performance in the heterogeneous oxidation of ethylbenzene under solvent-free conditions in the temperature range of 373-403 K. It was demonstrated that the reported strong base-type catalyst could facilitate the decomposition of 1-phenyl-ethylhydroperoxide, and a high reaction rate (2.89 x 10(-5) s(-1)) could be obtained at 403 K.