Fe‐Modified Co/CeO 2 Catalysts for Sustainable Cyclohexane Oxidation
Erisa Fero, Maela Manzoli, Ilaria Barlocco, Luca Braglia, Alberto Villa, Laura Prati, Marta StucchiABSTRACT
Fe‐modified Co/CeO 2 catalysts have been synthesized by sol‐immobilization and used for cyclohexane oxidation to KA oil and adipic acid (AA). The activity of bimetallic Fe x Co y and of the corresponding monometallic Co/CeO 2 and Fe/CeO 2 has been studied on cyclohexane oxidation at 120°C and 4 bar of O 2 , using benzaldehyde as radical initiator and without. The Fe 1 Co 2 /CeO 2 reached the highest productivity and selectivity to KA oil, suggesting a possible synergistic interaction between the two metals, particularly marked when the reaction was performed in the presence of the radical initiator. XPS analyses established that this effect is produced by the presence of Co 2+ /Fe 3+ species creating synergy. When the reaction is not initiated by benzaldehyde, although Fe 1 Co 2 /CeO 2 and Co/CeO 2 reached similar productivity, they showed different selectivity to KA oil or AA, where the bimetallic catalyst still produced more KA oil, whereas monometallic Co was the only one active to form AA.