Investigation of hollow bimetal oxide nanomaterial and their catalytic activity for selective oxidation of alcohol

Abstract The aerobic oxidation procedure utilized sustainable non-noble-metal catalysts has been a long-standing objective in laboratory and industrial research. The synthesized hollow bimetal oxide nanoparticles catalysts (HNPs) as a stable and efficient catalyst, which was applied to the selective oxidation of alcohols with molecular oxygen as oxidant, is reported. The catalytic performance of Co 3 O 4 /Fe 3 O 4 @C HNPs was tested via selective aerobic oxidation catalytic reaction of cinnamyl alcohol in the liquid phase. The results prove that the Co 3 O 4 /Fe 3 O 4 @C HNPs exhibit ∼ 90% yield for alcohol oxidation, which can be conveniently separated and recycled from reaction system by an external magnetism. Forthrmore, the catalyst can be reutilized for at least 5 runs without a distinct activity reduction. A feasible reaction mechnism over the bimetal catalyst for the alcohol oxidation was proposed. The surface effect between metal oxide nanoparticle and carbon support, and relatively high and easy reducibility grant favorable catalytic activity of Co 3 O 4 /Fe 3 O 4 @C HNPs. This make the Co 3 O 4 /Fe 3 O 4 @C HNPs a very significant catalyst for aerobic catalytic oxidation reaction of alcohols in the liquid phase for industrial manufacture.