Preparation of palladium-containing mesoporous bioactive glass catalyst and evaluation of its catalytic effect on oxidation of benzyl alcohol

Abstract

Benzaldehyde is widely used in food, pharmaceutical, paint and spices, and it is also an important organic reaction intermediate. At present, benzaldehyde is generally obtained by selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol in the industry. It is the most green by using oxygen as the oxidant to oxidise the benzyl alcohol into benzaldehyde. Pd/mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG) catalysts were prepared by ions exchanging between Pd²⁺ ions and Ca²⁺ ions of MBG. As the Ca²⁺ ions content was limited in MBG, ion exchange saturation would occur and Pd particles would aggregate and grow up in case of high Pd²⁺ concentration. The Pd/MBG catalysts were demonstrated to have highly catalytic activity in the reaction of catalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol with oxygen as the green oxidant. However, Pd concentration must be controlled in a small range. When the Pd concentration was higher than 0·96%, Pd particles would form, resulting in the decreasing of the catalytic activity of catalysts.

Keywords:

• Mesoporous
• Bioactive glass
• Benzyl alcohol
• Catalytic oxidation
• Catalyst
• Benzaldhyde
• MBG
• Pd

Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the Research Fund for Nanomaterials of Shanghai (grant no. 11nm0506900), Shanghai Municipal Committee of Science and Technology Research Project (grant no. 11231201302), the Science and Technology Innovation Project of Shanghai Institute of Ceramics(Y37ZC5150G), and International Science & Technology Cooperation Project of China (2013DFG52290).