Oxidation of naphthalene was performed with various manganese and iron porphyrins as catalysts and metachloroperbenzoic acid, tert-butylhydroperoxide, and hydrogenperoxide as oxidants, in the presence of imidazole as cocatalyst. With m-CPBA, in low concentration of catalyst, iron porphyrin shows a higher catalytic activity than manganese porphyrin, while a greater amount of manganese porphyrin is needed for having a good catalyst. In the presence of excess amount of H 2 O 2 oxidant in CH 3 OH solvent, manganese porphyrin acts better than iron porphyrin; however with the same oxidant and in aprotic solvent such as CH 3 CN : CH 2 Cl 2 again iron shows a higher activity than manganese. Moreover, the effects of metalloporphyrin concentration on the selectivity, activity and stability of catalyst were studied in H 2 O 2-catalytic oxidation.
