“…Acetophenone (AcPO), as an important chemical intermediate, is widely used for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, perfumes, soaps, alcohols, resins, and other organic products in both fundamental studies and industrial applications. − Traditionally, AcPO is mainly produced by the Fiedel–Crafts acylation reaction in the presence of a stoichiometric amount of aluminum chloride as the catalyst or the catalytic oxidation of ethylbenzene (EB) with molecular oxygen using a homogeneous cobalt acetate catalyst in acetic acid media. − In addition, other homogeneous catalysts, especially various metal complexes have been applied for the oxidation of EB to AcPO. − However, these methods suffer from one or more drawbacks such as the harsh reaction conditions, expensive reagents and catalysts, generation of toxic and corrosive waste, environmentally unfriendly nature, and separation and recycling difficulty. Therefore, considerable efforts have been focused on the exploration of efficient heterogeneous catalysts toward the selective oxidation of EB with tert -butylhydroperoxide, H 2 O 2 , or molecular oxygen as the oxidant.…”