Abstract
Au/SBA-15 nano catalysts were synthesized from four different methods, viz., homogeneous deposition–precipitation, micro-emulsion, impregnation and polyol, and their catalytic activities were investigated for the vapor phase oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde. The physico-chemical properties of the catalysts were characterised by XRD, TEM, BET surface area, pore size distribution, CO-chemisorption and XPS techniques. The structural data of the catalysts along with their catalytic studies indicate that the presence of very small metallic Au0 species with particle size of 7–8 nm, was responsible for the higher activity observed in the vapor phase oxidation of benzyl alcohol reaction. The title reaction, though industrially important, was used as a test reaction to investigate firstly, the influence of different preparation methods on the uniform dispersion of gold particles on the support SBA-15 and to understand the metal-support interaction in Au/SBA-15 catalysts, and secondly, to study the catalytic performance of the catalyst (Au/SBA-15) in terms of activity, selectivity and stability over a period of reaction time. The conversion of benzyl alcohol was found to increase with decrease in the size of gold particles. Smaller gold particles with higher percentage of dispersion on the support SBA-15 had a beneficial effect on the catalytic activity. Among the four methods used for the preparation of gold on SBA-15 support, the catalyst prepared by homogeneous deposition–precipitation method showed the best performance in terms of conversion, selectivity for benzaldehyde and longer catalyst life.
Graphical Abstract
Vapor phase oxidation of benzyl alcohol over nano Au/SBA-15 catalysts.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Pina CD, Falletta E, Rossi M (2008) J Catal 260:384–386
Enache DI, Edwards JK, Landon P, Solsona-Espriu B, Carley AF, Herzing AA, Watanabe M, Kiely CJ, Knight DW, Hutchings GJ (2006) Science 311:362–365
Haruta M (2002) Cattech 6:102–115
Enache DI, Knight DW, Hutchings GJ (2005) Catal Lett 103:43–52
Choudhary VR, Dumbre DK (2009) Top Catal 52:1677–1687
Biella S, Rossi M (2003) Chem Commun 21:378–379
Choudhary VR, Dumbre DK, Bhargava SK (2009) Ind Eng Chem Res 48:9471–9478
Chen Y, Lim H, Tang Q, Gao Y, Sun T, Yan Q, Yang Y (2010) Appl Catal A 380:55–65
Zhao D, Feng J, Huo Q, Melosh N, Fredrickson GH, Chmelka BF, Stucky GD (1998) Science 279:548–552
Deng Y, Wei J, Sun Z, Zhao D (2013) Chem Soc Rev 42:4054–4070
Ariga K, Vinu A, Yamauchi Y, Ji Q, Hill JP (2012) Bull Chem Soc Jpn 85:1–32
Tran ND, Besson M, Descorne C (2011) New J Chem 35:2095–2104
Lopez N, Nørskov JK, Janssens TVW, Carlsson A, Molina AP, Clausen BS, Grunwaldt JD (2004) J Catal 225:86–94
Tsubota S, Haruta M, Kobayashi T, Ueda A, Nakahara Y (1991) Stud Surf Sci Catal 63:695–704
Widmann D, Behm RJ (2011) Angew Chem Int Ed 50:10241–10245
Pavankumar V, Srikanth CS, Rao AN, Chary KVR (2014) J Nanosci Nanotechnol 14:3137–3146
Kumar A, Kumar VP, Vishwanathan V, Chary KVR (2014) Mater Res Bull 61:105–112
Venugopal A, Scurrell MS (2003) Appl Catal A 245:137–147
Chary KVR, Srikanth CS, Rao VV (2009) Catal Commun 10:459–463
Chary KVR, Srikanth ChS (2009) Catal Lett 128:164–170
Wang H, Wang JG, Shen ZR, Liu YP, Ding DT, Chen TH (2010) J Catal 275:140–148
Devarajan S, Bera P, Sampath S (2005) J Colloid Interface Sci 290:117–129
Hu LH, Ji SF, Jiang Z, Song HL, Wu PY, Liu QQ (2007) J Phys Chem C 111:15173–15184
Wang HP, Liu CJ (2011) Appl Catal B 106:672–680
Chen Y, Wang H, Liu CJ, Zeng Z, Zhang H, Zhou C, Jia X, Yang Y (2012) J Catal 289:105–117
Makgwane PR, Ray SS (2013) J Mol Catal A 373:1–11
Yang HW, Tang DL, Lu XN, Yuan YZ (2009) J Phys Chem C 113:8186–8193
Zhan G, Huang J, Du M, Sun D, Abdul-Rauf I, Lin W, Hong Y, Li Q (2012) Chem Eng J 187:232–238
Du M, Zhan G, Yang X, Wang H, Lin W, Zhou Y, Zhu J, Lin L, Huang J, Sun D, Jia L, Li Q (2011) J Catal 283:192–201
Wang Z, Wang XV, Zeng DY, Chen MS, Wan HL (2011) Catal Today 260:144–152
Hussain ST, Iqbal M, Mazhar M (2009) J Nanopart Res 11:1383–1391
Kumar A, Kumar VP, Kumar BP, Vishwanathan V, Chary KVR (2014) Catal Lett 144:1450–1459
Dimitratos N, Lopez-Sanchez JA, Morgan D, Carley A, Prati L, Hutchings GJ (2007) Catal Today 122:317–324
Choudhary VR, Chaudhari PA, Narkhede VS (2003) Catal Commun 4:171–175
Wang H, Fan W, He Y, Wang J, Kondo JN, Tatsumi T (2013) J Catal 299:10–19
Chen YT, Zheng HJ, Guo Z, Zhou CM, Wang C, Borgna A, Yang YH (2011) J Catal 283:34–44
Acknowledgments
Ashish Kumar thanks University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi, India, for the award of Senior Research Fellowship (SRF).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kumar, A., Kumar, V.P., Srikanth, A. et al. Vapor Phase Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol over Nano Au/SBA-15 Catalysts: Effect of Preparation Methods. Catal Lett 146, 35–46 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-015-1656-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-015-1656-7