Iron (III) phthalocyanine complexes were employed for the first time as a mild and efficient Lewis acid catalyst in the selective oxidation of cyclohexene to cyclohexane-1,2-diol. It was found that the catalyst FePcOTf shown excellent conversion and moderate selectivity relative to other iron (III) phthalocyanine complexes. The optimum conditions of the oxidation reaction catalyzed by FePcOTf/H2O2 have been researched in this paper. Iron (III) phthalocyanine triflate (1 mol %) as catalyst, hydrogen peroxide as oxidant, methanol as solvent, and a mole ratio of substrate and oxidant (H2O2) of 1:1 were used for achieving moderate yields of 1,2-diols under reflux conditions after eight hours.
