Selective oxidation of benzene over titanium-silica based catalyst

Abstract

The selective oxidation of benzene to phenol using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant was studied over the titanium-silica based catalyst such as Ti-MCM-41, TS-1 and TS-PQTM (the trade mark of PQ Corporation). These catalysts have been characterized using various techniques such as XRD, BET, DRUV-Vis, FT-IR and SEM. Under the preliminary studied conditions, TS-PQTM exhibited the highest catalytic activity among the studied catalysts. These findings can be correlated to enlarged BET surface, larger pore volume and higher amount of mesopores in the material as well as defects of the catalyst structure. The effects of pressure, H2O2 addition rate, reaction temperature, stirring speed, molar ratio of benzene/H2O2, volume of additional water and catalyst weight, on the catalytic performance of TS-PQTM were investigated. Under mild conditions, such as 70C and atmospheric pressure, an excellent overall phenol yield could be achieved over TS-PQTM.