Catalytic activity of ethylbenzene with product selectivity by gold nanoparticlessupported on zinc oxide

Authors

AFIQ ANWAR
AZMAN MA'AMOR
H.N.M. EKRAMUL MAHMUD
WAN JEFREY BASIRUN
ISKANDAR ABDULLAH

DOI

10.55730/1300-0527.3363

Abstract

The oxidation of ethylbenzene (EB) using tert-butyl hydroperoxide as the oxidizing agent was carried out in presence of gold nanoparticles (3 nm) supported on zinc oxide in acetonitrile solution. A higher selectivity towards acetophenone (ACP) as the major product, and a moderate selectivity towards other products such as 1-phenylethanol (PE), benzaldehyde (BZL), and benzoic acid (BzA) were observed using the prepared Au/ZnO nanocatalysts at 100 °C for 24 h. It is suggested the reaction produces an intermediate product, which is dimethylethyl-1-phenylethyl peroxide through a radical mechanism. A small amount of benzaldehyde was observed because benzaldehyde went autoxidation to form benzoic acid with the presence of oxidation agent of TBHP during reaction. The factors affecting the catalytic activity such as gold loading, calcination treatment at 300°C, type of solvent, reaction time, reaction temperature, oxidant to substrate molar ratio, catalyst weight, and solvent volume were studied. The gold nanoparticle catalyst synthesized by deposition precipitation method using urea was characterized by XRD, HRTEM, ATR-IR, XRF, and BET and offers a very selective reaction pathway for the oxidation of ethylbenzene.

Keywords

Gold nanoparticle, ethylbenzene, oxidation reaction, gold catalysis, characterization

First Page

730

Last Page

746

Recommended Citation

ANWAR, AFIQ; MA'AMOR, AZMAN; MAHMUD, H.N.M. EKRAMUL; BASIRUN, WAN JEFREY; and ABDULLAH, ISKANDAR (2022) "Catalytic activity of ethylbenzene with product selectivity by gold nanoparticlessupported on zinc oxide," Turkish Journal of Chemistry: Vol. 46: No. 3, Article 9. https://doi.org/10.55730/1300-0527.3363
Available at: https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/chem/vol46/iss3/9