Porous silica nano-flowers stabilized Pt-Pd bimetallic nanoparticles as heterogeneous catalyst for efficiently synthesizing guaiacol from 2-methoxycyclohexanol

Porous silica nano-flowers(KCC-1)immobilized Pt-Pd alloy NPs(Pt-Pd/KCC-1)with different mass ratios of Pd and Pt were successfully prepared by a facile in situ one-step reduction,using hydrazinium hydroxide as a reducing agent.The as-synthesized silica nanospheres possess radial fibers with a distance of 15 nm,exhibiting a high specific surface area(443.56 m^(2)·g^(-1)).Meanwhile,the obtained Pt-Pd alloy NPs are uniformly dispersed on the silica surface with a metallic particle size of 4-6 nm,which exist as metallic Pd and Pt on the surface of monodisperse KCC-1,showing the transfer of electrons from Pd to Pt.The as-synthesized 2.5%Pt-2.5%Pd/KCC-1 exhibited excellent catalytic activity and stability for the continuous dehydrogenation of 2-methoxycyclohexanol to prepare guaiacol.Compared with Pt or Pd single metal supported catalysts,the obtained 2.5%Pt-2.5%Pd/KCC-1 shows 97.2%conversion rate of 2-methoxycyclohexanol and 76.8%selectivity for guaiacol,which attributed to the significant synergistic effect of bimetallic Pt-Pd alloy NPs.Furthermore,turn over frequency value of the obtained 2.5%Pt-2.5%Pd/KCC-1 NPs achieved 4.36 s^(-1),showing higher catalytic efficiency than other two monometallic catalysts.Reaction pathways of dehydro-aromatization of 2-methoxycyclohexanol over the obtained catalyst are proposed.Consequently,the obtained 2.5%Pt-2.5%Pd/KCC-1 NPs prove their potential in the dehydrogenation of 2-methoxycyclohexanol,while the kinetics and mechanistic study of the dehydrogenation reaction over the catalyst in a continuous fixed-bed reactor may provide valuable information for the development of green,outstanding and powerful synthetic pathway of guaiacol.

Experimental and theoretical study on N-hydroxyphthalimide and its derivatives catalyzed aerobic oxidation of cyclohexylbenzene

The liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexylbenzene(CHB)is a new green synthetic approach to cyclohexylbenzene-1-hydroperoxide(CHBHP),a key intermediate for preparing phenol and cyclohexanone.In this work,aryl-substituted(Cl and Br)derivatives of N-hydroxyphthalimide(NHPI)were synthesized and their catalytic performances for CHB oxidation were studied.In addition,geometric optimization and transition state search were performed using DFT calculations.Both experimental and theoretical studies have proven that chloro-substitution on NHPI can significantly improve its catalytic effects on the oxidation of CHB by oxygen.Compared with NHPI,CHB conversion and selectivity of CHBHP over Cl;NHPI were increased by 10.47%and 13.24%.The strategy of aryl-substituting NHPI with halogen atoms proposed in this study would provide a potential way to the development of new NHPI-based catalysts for aerobic oxidation reactions.