Microwave Irradiation Synthesized Cobalt-Loaded Nitrogen-Doped Active Carbon as an Efficient Catalyst for Selective Oxidation of Ethylbenzene

Abstract

Microwave irradiation technology was used to dope nitrogen on the active carbon using dicyanodiamide as nitrogen source. The obtained nitrogen-doped active carbon was then modified by an ion impregnation method to load cobalt ions. The as-prepared cobalt-loaded nitrogen-doped active carbon (Co–N–AC) was characterized by techniques such as XRD, SEM, XPS, EA and AAS and the catalytic performance was evaluated via the selective oxidation of ethylbenzene under solvent-free condition using molecular oxygen as oxygen source. The results showed that 23.2 mol% conversion of ethylbenzene and 95.7% selectivity to acetophenone was obtained over 3%Co–N–AC, in which the excellent catalytic performance of the catalysts may be attributed to the stable doped N, the highly dispersed Co on the surface of AC and the structure of Co-N bond.