Palladium, Gold, and Gold–Palladium Nanoparticle-Supported Carbon Materials for Cyclohexane Oxidation

Abstract

Transition metal supported porous carbon materials have become a promising aspirant in energy storage, solid catalysis, and material chemistry. Palladium, gold, and gold–palladium anchored carbon composites (CPC-25/170, CGC-25/170, and CGPC-25/170) with two different sized carbon cages (∼25 and 170 nm) were constructed using nano-silica ball (NSB) as the template and a pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO) based pitch residue as the carbon source. The Pd, Au, and Au–Pd doped carbon nanoreactors were characterized by various physicochemical analysis methods. The developed materials were used as heterogeneous catalysts for the oxidation of cyclohexane to cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone using H2O2 at room temperature (25°C) and atmospheric pressure. The most active catalyst CGC-170 showed combined cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone yield of 7.7% after 4 h reaction time. The conversion of 2.4%, 0.05%, and 0.32% was achieved using CGC-25, CGPC-25, and CGPC-170 catalysts, respectively. Recyclability of the catalysts maintains no observable loss of performance during catalytic oxidation reaction.