Carboxylic acids as intermediates of several organic functionalities such as esters, amides, alkyd resin, medicines, and dyes are an important type of organic compounds.5 Catalytic oxidation of primary alcohols is one of the most convenient methodology to synthesize the corresponding carboxylic acids. For selective catalytic oxidation reaction of primary alcohols, the noble or transition metals are reported previously.6 Carbon nanomaterials as a type of metal free catalysts provide additional advantages because of their enrichment with reactants, environmental friendly, and biocompatible performance.7 The structure of carbon materials can be fine-tuned by doping with heteroatoms like N, P, S, and B. The doping strategy led to the improved carbocatalytic activity. In this work, the P doped graphene oxide (P-GO) is prepared by thermal calcination method. The as-synthesized P-GO is proven to be an efficient catalyst in selective oxidation of aromatic alcohols to acids. The P-GO catalyst can be used to synthesize a variety of acids, and the catalyst recyclability has also been examined (Fig. 1).

Keywords