A semiconductor gas sensor system for high throughput screening of heterogeneous catalysts for the production of benzene derivatives

Abstract

We used a semiconductor gas sensor system developed for odour discrimination for a rapid quantification of benzene derivatives which can be formed as the product of a catalytic reaction. Phenol can be obtained by the selective oxidation of benzene. The sensor system shows higher sensitivity to phenol than benzene. In particular, a SnO2 sensor sensitized with ZrO2 responds selectively to phenol. Aniline is provided as a reaction product between ammonia and benzene. The output signal of the gas sensor system increases when it is exposed to air containing aniline at the ppm level; on the other hand, the sensor output resulting from 1% ammonia in air does not increase so much. Cumene formation can be observed by the reaction of propane and benzene. The sensitivity of a SnO2 sensor sensitized with 12%SiO2–Al2O3 to cumene was about ten times higher than that to benzene. These results indicate that the semiconductor gas sensor system is useful for rapid screening of the catalyst for benzene functionalization.