Aerobic Ammoxidation of Cyclic Ketones to Dinitrile Products with Copper-Based Catalysts

Adiponitrile (ADN) has wide applications, especially in the polymer industry. With the substantial and increasing global demand for ADN, effective production of ADN using safe and abundant starting materials is highly desirable but very challenging. Herein, we discovered that CuBr, combined with 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), could effectively promote the ammoxidation reaction of cyclohexanone to ADN with a yield of >99% using aqueous ammonia as the nitrogen source and O