Sonocatalytic Activity of Porous Carbonaceous Materials for the Selective Oxidation of 4-Hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzyl Alcohol.

Selective oxidation, which is crucial in diverse chemical industries, transforms harmful chemicals into valuable compounds. Heterogeneous sonocatalysis, an emerging sustainable approach, urges in-depth exploration. In this work, we investigated N-doped or non-doped carbonaceous materials as alternatives to scarce, economically sensitive metal-based catalysts. Having synthesized diverse carbons using a hard-template technique, we subjected them to sonication at frequencies of 22, 100, 500, and 800 kHz with a 50% amplitude. Sonochemical reaction catalytic tests considerably increased the catalytic activity of C-meso (non-doped mesoporous carbon material). The scavenger test showed a radical formation when this catalyst was used. N-doped carbons did not show adequate and consistent sonoactivity for the selective oxidation of 4-Hydroxy-3,5 dimethoxybenzyl alcohol in comparison with control conditions without sonication, which might be associated with an acid-base interaction between the catalysts and the substrate and sonoactivity prohibition by piridinic nitrogen in N-doped catalysts.

Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles Confined in Doped Mesoporous Carbons: A Strategy to Produce Catalysts for Imine Synthesis.

A group of (doped N or P) carbons were synthesized using soluble starch as a carbon precursor. Further, ceria nanoparticles (NPs) were confined into these (doped) carbon materials. The obtained solids were characterized by various techniques such as N2 physisorption, XRD, TEM, SEM, XPS, and XAS. These materials were used as catalysts for the oxidative coupling between benzyl alcohol and aniline as the model reaction. Ceria immobilized on mesoporous-doped carbon shows higher activity than the other materials, benchmark catalysts, and most of the previously reported catalysts. The control of the ceria NP size, the presence of Ce3+ cations, and an increment in the disorder in the ceria NP structure caused by a support-ceria interaction could increase the number of oxygen vacancies and improve its catalytic performance. CN-meso/CeO2 was also used as the catalyst for a rich scope of substrates, such as substituted aromatic alcohols, linear alcohols, and different types of amines. The influence of various reaction parameters (substrate content, reaction temperature, and catalyst content) on the activity of this catalyst was also checked.

Insight into the synthesis procedure of Fe3+/TiO2-based photocatalyst applied in the selective photo-oxidation of benzyl alcohol under sun-imitating lamp.

Fe3+/TiO2/zeolite Y photocatalyst synthesized by using sonophotodeposition method was compared with photocatalysts prepared by simple photodeposition and sonodeposition methods in order to clarify the role of light irradiation and ultrasounds while they are used simultaneously. To gain an insight into the mechanism of this method a detailed characterization of the photocatalysts was carried out by means of the following techniques: UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Mössbauer measurements and photocatalytic test reaction. Basing on the results from these techniques the chemical role of light and mainly mechanical role of ultrasound were observed. The selective photocatalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol into benzaldehyde in liquid phase was a test reaction verifying the utility of the prepared materials. The best photocatalytic efficiency in this reaction was performed by photocatalyst synthesized using compilation of ultrasound energy with photoexcitation.

Sonophotodeposition of bimetallic photocatalysts Pd-Au/TiO2 : application to selective oxidation of methanol to methyl formate.

The aim of this work is to develop bimetallic Pd-Au/TiO2 P90 systems, which are highly active and selective for the photocatalytic oxidation of methanol to form methyl formate. Modification of commercial TiO2 P90 with Pd-Au nanoparticles was successfully achieved for the first time by means of a sonophotodeposition (SPD) method. The prepared materials were characterized by TEM, UV/Vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and powder XRD. The Pd-Au bimetallic nanoparticles supported on titania exhibited remarkably enhanced catalytic activity in selective methanol oxidation to form methyl formate due to the synergism of Au and Pd particles, as well as the strong interaction between TiO2 and Pd-Au. SPD is a green methodology that can be used to prepare well-defined bimetallic surfaces on semiconductor supports with great promise for catalytic applications, in which selectivity can be tuned through adjustment of the surface composition.