Highly dispersed Co/SBA-15 mesoporous materials as efficient and stable catalyst for partial oxidation of cyclohexane with molecular oxygen

Abstract Highly dispersed Co/SBA-15 mesoporous materials as an efficient and stable catalyst for partial oxidation of cyclohexane has been studied in present work. The physico-chemical properties of Co/SBA-15 catalysts were systematically characterized by XRD, XPS, H2-TPR, UV–vis DRS, FT-IR, BET, SEM and TEM-EDX. The characterization results indicated that the nanoscale cobalt oxide particles were highly dispersed on SBA-15 support surface, and part of cobalt ions were incorporated into the silica framework to formed very stable structure. For partial oxidation of cyclohexane with molecular oxygen, Co/SBA-15 displayed a good catalytic performance for 9.6% of cyclohexane conversion and 81.1% of selectivity toward KA oil among the Co-containing molecular sieves catalysts, and it also showed highly stability and reusability in this oxidation reaction. The influences of reaction parameters such as initial oxygen pressure, reaction temperature, catalyst dosage and reaction time on the cyclohexane oxidation with Co/SBA-15 as catalys were also investigated. Maybe this work employing Co/SBA-15 as highly efficient and stable catalyst for the preparation of KA oil from cyclohexane has potential industrial application prospects.