A novel, mesoporous molybdenum doped titanium dioxide/reduced graphene oxide composite as a green, highly efficient solid acid catalyst for acetalization.

Abstract

A novel, mesoporous composite of Mo doped TiO2/reduced graphene oxide is synthesized to be used as a highly efficient heterogeneous acid catalyst. The composite has a high surface area (263 m2 g-1) and a monomodal pore size distribution with an average pore diameter of 3.4 nm. A comprehensive characterization of the synthesized material was done using PXRD, Raman, BET, SEM, EDX, TEM, TGA, and XPS. The composite exhibited excellent catalytic activity (1.6 h-1 TOF, >99% GC yield, and >99% selectivity) towards acetalization of cyclohexanone at room tempertaure within 30 minutes. The catalyst was reusable up to 4 reaction cycles without any significant loss in the activity and the acidic site calculations showed that the reaction is mostly driven by the weak acidic sites on the composite.