Influence of Nb2O5 grown on SrTiO3 nanoseeds in the catalytic oxidation of thioanisole

Abstract

There is a growing interest on the reach for new environmentally friendly catalysts especially solid metal oxides. The functional properties of SrTiO3 (STO) and its combination with other materials seem promising to yield catalytic reactions. In this sense, niobium oxides, particularly its most stable form Nb2O5, have showing a stunning compatibility with SrTiO3 arrays producing applicable compounds for high yield catalytic benchmarks. Here we investigate the yield of SrTiO3 and the activity of SrTiO3/Nb2O5 catalytic system in the oxidation process of thioanisole. This catalyst was synthesized through microwave assisted hydrothermal process in which Nb2O5 react with SrTiO3 nanoseeds in solution. The SrTiO3 nanoseeds seem to have induced a long-range order monoclinic array for the Nb2O5 stoichiometry for a certain period after which a disordered nanocrystalline phase for Nb2O5 was formed. Although this Nb2O5 growth on SrTiO3 arrays has already been shown in the literature, it differs from the results expected for a Nb2O5 synthesis using the MAH method, which will only produce nanocrystalline matrices at the temperature of 130 °C in a 15-min synthesis. The SrTiO3/Nb2O5 catalyst demonstrated to be highly efficient in thioanisole oxidation with hydrogen peroxide.