Aqueous-phase catalytic hydroxylation of phenol with H2O2 by using a copper incorporated apatite nanocatalyst

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 9; no. 25; pp. 14132 - 14142
• Main Authors: Amedlous, Abdallah, Amadine, Othmane, Younes Essamlali, Daanoun, Karim, Aadil, Mina, Zahouily, Mohamed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 01-01-2019; The Royal Society of Chemistry
• Subjects: Apatite; Catalysis; Catalysts; Chemistry; Copper; Dihydroxybenzenes; Fourier transforms; Hydrogen peroxide; Hydroxylation; Infrared spectroscopy; Nanomaterials; Phenols; Photoelectrons; Raman spectroscopy; Reaction time; Scanning electron microscopy; Scanning transmission electron microscopy; Selectivity; Spectrum analysis; Thermogravimetric analysis; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/c9ra02021g

Copper incorporated apatite (Cu-apatite) nanomaterial was prepared by a co-precipitation method. The obtained material was characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM, STEM) and nitrogen adsorption–desorption. The as-prepared Cu-apatite was used to catalyze phenol hydroxylation with hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant. The influencing parameters including reaction time, temperature, H2O2/phenol ratio and catalyst mass have been investigated. Under the optimized conditions, the Cu-apatite catalyst gave a phenol conversion of 64% with 95% selectivity to dihydroxybenzenes. More importantly, the results of catalyst recycling indicated that the same catalytic performance has been obtained after four cycles with a slight loss of activity and selectivity.