Rahmatollah Rahimi
Iran University of Science and Technology, Iran
Title: Highly selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde catalyzed by Zn-Fe2O4@ZnO core-shell nanostructures
Biography
Biography: Rahmatollah Rahimi
Abstract
In this study, ZnO nanoparticles have been immobilized on the surface of Zn-Fe2O4 nanohallow spheres by sol-gel method and the core-shell structure of Zn-Fe2O4@ZnO nanohallow spheres were characterization by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and vibration sample magnetometery (VSM). The SEM images reveal formation of sphere structure. The TEM micrographs confirm that the size of catalyst is about 150 nm and the thickness of ZnO shell is smaller than 30 nm. Results of VSM illustrate that Zn-Fe2O4@ZnOparticles are superparamagnetic. The catalytic activity of Zn-Fe2O4@ZnO nanohallow spheres was investigated for oxidation of benzylic alcohols using H2O2 as an oxidant. The resultant Zn-Fe2O4@ZnO nanohallow spheres were highly selective for oxidation of benzyl alcohols to corresponding benzaldehydes. It was found that the as–prepared catalyst display the excellent performance, whereby, 100% selectivity of benzaldehyde was achieved at close to 92% conversion.