The effect of ceria modified cryptomelane on the oxidative dehydrogenation of cyclohexane

Abstract

Nanostructure cryptomelane has been synthesized in neutral medium using CTAB as a structure directing agent and was modified by impregnation with ceria (2.5, 5 and 7.5 wt%). XRD, FT-IR, TEM and N2 adsorption techniques were employed to study the characterization of the prepared samples. The catalytic activity of the prepared samples towards the oxidative dehydrogenation of cyclohexane in air was evaluated. The catalytic activity results revealed that the ceria/OMS-2 samples is the most selective catalyst towards benzene formation at all reaction temperature although the selectivity to benzene formation decreases from 99 at 300 °C to 56% with the increase of reaction temperature to 400 °C. The parent OMS-2N catalyst is an active and selective one towards the formation of cyclohexanol (oxidation reaction) which reaches maximum 47% at 375 °C.