With equal molar ratio of benzene and hydrogen peroxide and without any additional volatile organic solvent, a green aqueous–ionic liquid biphasic hydroxylation of benzene to phenol with hydrogen peroxide as oxidant and metal dodecanesulfonate salts such as ferric tri(dodecanesulfonate) as catalyst was conducted with excellent selectivity and enhanced conversion.

★★★★☆ Jiajian Peng, Feng Shi, Yanlong Gu and Youquan Deng. Green Chemistry, 2003, 5, 224–226.