Simple and effective synthesis of methoxy-dimethylbenzene from electrochemical oxidation of p-xylene
June 29th, 2008 | by admin |Simple and effective synthesis of methoxy-dimethylbenzene from electrochemical oxidation of p-xylene in methanol solvent catalyzed by SO(4)(2-)/ZrO(2)-M(x)O(y).
A series of composite solid superacid catalysts SO(4)(2-)/ZrO(2)-M(x)O(y) (M=Ti, Ni, Si) were prepared and investigated by means of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). All catalysts exhibit good catalytic activity in the electrochemical reaction of p-xylene with methanol assisted with a pair of porous graphite plane electrodes and the selectivity of main products higher than 90% were observed. In particular, SO(4)(2-)/ZrO(2)-SiO(2) catalyst exhibited excellent catalytic activity. According to the experimental results, a possible free radical reaction mechanism confirmed by XPS and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectra was proposed. It may be concluded that a simple and feasible electrochemical catalytic oxidation reaction at room temperature and standard atmosphere may be possible.
Chen F, Ma H, Wang B.
Institute of Energy Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710062, People\’s Republic of China.