Honeycomb-like porous Ce–Cr oxide/N-doped carbon nanostructure

Honeycomb-like porous Ce–Cr oxide/N-doped carbon nanostructure: Achieving high catalytic performance for the selective oxidation of cyclohexane to KA oilchengde wanyang activated carbon factory
In heterogeneous catalysis, developing robust catalysts and preventing the metal leaching during the reactions still remain challenging. Herein, a porous honeycomb-like nanostructure with bimetallic Ce–Cr oxide supported on N-doped carbon was prepared via a facile in-situ pyrolysis method. The prepared catalyst was highly active, selective, and stable in the transformation of cyclohexane to KA oil with H2O2 as the oxidant. The N-doped carbon served as an excellent support for the metal nanoparticles and greatly promoted their dispersion, and displayed a comparable or superior catalytic activity compared to the other traditional supports. It was found that the pyridinic N and pyrrolic N species of N-doped carbon were the main active sites for the metal immobilization, and the strong electronic interaction between N-doped carbon and Ce–Cr oxide was formed. The results revealed that the increased low-valence metal species might be responsible for the improved catalytic activity, and EPR analysis indicated that the hydroxyl radicals played a crucial role during the oxidation process. honeycomb carbonBesides, the catalyst can be easily separated and still remained stable after recycling seven times, making it a promising candidate for the catalytic oxidation of cyclohexane to KA oil under mild conditions.