Highly active Cu/MgO catalysts for selective dehydrogenation of benzyl alcohol into benzaldehyde using neither O2 nor H2 acceptor

Aiming at developing an efficient catalyst for selective dehydrogenation of benzyl alcohol into benzaldehyde in the absence of O2 and H2 acceptor, a series of Cu/MgO catalysts with Cu loading of 1, 3, 5, and 7% have been prepared, of which the 5% Cu/MgO catalyst in the gas phase exhibited a remarkable performance with 98% conversion and 97% selectivity and in support of the performance, the catalysts have been characterized by different techniques like BET surface area analysis, XRD, TEM, CO2-TPD, N2O pulse chemisorption, XPS and TPR.