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Significant Formation of Adipic Acid by Direct Oxidation of Cyclohexane Using Supported Nano‐Gold Catalysts
Author(s) -
Alshammari Ahmad,
Koeckritz Angela,
Kalevaru Venkata Narayana,
Bagabas Abdulaziz,
Martin Andreas
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
chemcatchem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1867-3899
pISSN - 1867-3880
DOI - 10.1002/cctc.201200008
Subject(s) - cyclohexanol , cyclohexane , catalysis , cyclohexanone , adipic acid , selectivity , particle size , colloidal gold , materials science , anatase , nanoparticle , chemical engineering , chemistry , nuclear chemistry , inorganic chemistry , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , photocatalysis , polymer chemistry , engineering
Adipic acid (AA) is one of the highest volume chemicals in world use with a wide range of commercial applications. This paper demonstrates the possibility of producing significant proportions of AA by the selective oxidation of cyclohexane (CH) in one step using various supported gold‐nanoparticle (AuNP) catalysts. The catalysts were characterized by ICP, BET, XRD, X‐ray photoelectron microscopy, and TEM. The catalytic activity tests were carried out in the liquid phase using autoclaves in the temperature range of 100–170 °C at 10 bar. A CH conversion of over 25 %, with 26% selectivity of AA and 70% selectivity of KA oil (cyclohexanone+cyclohexanol), was achieved over a nano‐gold/TiO 2 (anatase) catalyst. The superior performance of this catalyst is attributed to the smaller size of AuNPs, which has an average particle size of 2 nm. Good correlation between activity and Au particle size could be achieved. Overall, the particle size of the AuNPs showed a strong influence on catalytic performance.