Oxidation of Styrene with Molecular Oxygen in Supercritical CO2

The oxidation of styrene with molecular oxygen catalyzed by PdCl2+CuCl2 has been investigated in supercritical CO2 with a batch reactor. The oxidative system of styrene contains four components at the beginning and seven components during the reaction. The critical temperature, critical pressure, and critical density at different conversions are determined by using a high-pressure view cell. The effect of phase behavior on the conversion and selectivity were studied. Experimental results showed that the critical parameters of the reaction mixture at fixed initial molar ratio changed with the conversion of reactant. The conversion of styrene reached maximum near the critical density of the reaction mixture. Product selectivity also varied with density of reaction mixture and could be tuned to some degree.