Catalytic oxidation of toluene over active MnO x catalyst prepared via an alkali-promoted redox precipitation method

Abstract

MnO x catalysts were contrastively prepared by an alkali-promoted redox precipitation strategy (MnO x -RP) and a conventional citrate sol–gel method (MnO x -SG), and tested for the catalytic oxidation of toluene, where MnO x -RP exhibited higher catalytic activity, excellent catalytic durability under dry conditions and good regeneration ability under humid conditions. The characterizations results indicated that different crystalline phases but similar textual properties (specific surface area, porosity and morphology) were observed over MnO x -RP and MnO x -SG catalysts, while MnO x -RP presented significantly higher low-temperature reducibility and average oxidation state of Mn as well as higher abundance of surface adsorbed oxygen species compared with MnO x -SG, thus beneficially resulting in its superior catalytic activity in the reaction.