Ytterbia doped nickel-manganese mixed oxide catalysts for liquid phase oxidation of benzyl alcohol

Abstract EN

Nickel–manganese mixed oxides doped with 1, 3, 5 mol% ytterbia have been prepared by co-precipitation method and used in the catalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol.

Catalytic activity of these oxides calcined at 400 C and 500 C was studied for selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to the corresponding aldehyde using molecular oxygen as an oxidizing agent.

The results showed that thermally stable 5 mol% ytterbia doped nickel–manganese oxide [Yb2O3-(5%)-Ni6MnO8] exhibited highest catalytic performance when it was calcined at 400 C.

A 100% conversion of the benzyl alcohol was achieved with >99% selectivity to benzaldehyde within a reaction period of 5 h at 100 C.

The mixed oxide prepared has been characterized by scanning election microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and temperature programed reduction (H2-TPR).