Abstract:
Cyclohexene oxide is an epoxide that serves as a valuable intermediate used in the petrochemical industry. The challenge encountered in production is the formation of undesirable products that are produced by side reactions, such as 2-cyclohexene-1-ol, 2-cyclohexene-1-one, trans-1,2-cyclohexanediol, etc. The aim of this research was to optimize cyclohexene epoxidation reaction by studying the effects of incorporating Ce into mesoporous-assembled 1%Ru/Ti mixed oxide catalysts. The catalysts were synthesized by a single-step sol-gel method, which was then compared to the commercial TiO2 (Degussa P-25) and sol-gel TiO2 Hydrogen peroxide was chosen as the oxidizing agent. The BET results exhibited the IUPAC Type IV isotherm for all catalysts synthesized via the single-step sol-gel method, implying a mesoporous structure. The optimum Ce loading was found at 0.5%Ce/Ru/TiO2, giving 28% conversion and 68% cyclohexene oxide selectivity. The high reactivity of 0.5%Ce/Ru/TiO2 could be due to its high surface area (104m2/g) and high amount of surface hydroxyl (4.53 OH/nm2), as compared to sol-gel TiO1, 1%Ru/TiO2 and 2%Ce/TiO2
