The Aerobic Oxidation and C=C Bond Cleavage of Styrenes Catalyzed by Cerium(IV) Ammonium Nitrate (CAN).

The CAN-catalyzed aerobic oxidation severed the C=C bond selectively through the single electron transfer mechanism, giving a green method to decompose olefins. Compared with the literature reported examples, this method required simple catalyst, cheap, abundant and clean oxidant and was very safe to operate due to the mild conditions.