o-Nitrobenzaldehyde (ONBD) is an important intermediate for preparing medicine and fine chemicals.But there are serious problems in present industrial production methods

such as environmental pollution

equipment corrosion

and high energy consumption.A novel green synthesis of o-nitrobenzaldehyde by dioxygen oxidation of o-nitrotoluene (ONT) with metal porphyrins as catalysts was investigated in order to solve the above problems.The results showed that conversion of o-nitrotoluene was up to 47.8%

and the maximum selectivity and yield of o-nitrobenzaldehyde were 54.2% and 25.9% respectively under the optimum conditions: 2.0×10 -6mol·L-1 of T(o-Cl)PPZn catalyst

5.0 mol·L-1of NaOH concentration

and 40℃

1.5 MPa for 4 h.The effects of center metal ions and substituents as well as their positions in the ring of porphyrin on the activity and selectivity of the above reaction were also studied

and the results showed that center metal ions and substituents as well as their positions in the ring of porphyrin had very different effects on the activity and selectivity of such a reaction.