Preparation of Mesoporous Supported CuCo2O4 Catalyst and Selective Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol

Using poly (ethylene oxide)-poly (propylene oxide)- poly (ethylene oxide) (P123), tetraethyl silicon (TEOS), HCl, n-butanol as raw materials, SBA-15 template was prepared by liquid phase reaction method. Using SBA-15 as template, Cu(NO3)2·3H2O and Co(NO3)2·6H2O as raw materials and n-hexane as solvent, mesoporous CuCo2O4 composite metal oxide was prepared by hard template nano-casting. The composite metal oxides were characterized by thermo gravimetric differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Taking benzyl alcohol as the target, the effects of reaction temperature, different catalyst dosage, reaction time and molar ratio of benzyl alcohol to hydrogen peroxide on selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol by CuCo2O4 were studied, and the oxidation products were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The results show that the sample of CuCo2O4 metal composite calcined at 700 °C has the highest purity, and the average particle size is about 500 nm. The optimum conditions for selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol by CuCo2O4 are reaction system temperature of 80 °C, catalyst dosage of 8 g/L, reaction time 3h, the molar ratio 1:1 of hydrogen peroxide to benzyl alcohol. Under the optimum condition, the conversion rate of benzyl alcohol is 78.13% and the recovery rate of benzaldehyde is 56%. Mesoporous CuCo2O4 is a composite metal oxide with good selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol, which has a wide application prospect.