Efficient Conversion of Benzyl Alcohol on a Mesoporous Co3O4

High-efficiency conversion of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde on heterogeneous catalysts using oxygen as oxidant is important in industrial catalysis due to economic and environmentally friendly superiority. Herein, an ordered mesoporous Co3O4 was fabricated by copying hexagonally mesoporous silica SBA-15. Various characterization technologies show that the prepared cobalt oxide has ordered mesoporous structure. The mesoporous Co3O4 can partially oxidize benzyl alcohol with 93.6% of conversion by using air as an oxidant, much higher than that achieved on commercial cobalt oxide under the same condition. The mesopore in Co3O4 can facilitate the adsorption of substrate and oxidant to the active centers and diffusion of product and hence improve the catalytic performance.