Selectivity and mechanism of cumene liquid-phase oxidation in the presenceof powdered mixed iron-aluminum oxides prepared by alkoxy method

Sol-gel chemistry routes using metallo-organic complexes as precursors were used to prepare iron-aluminum catalysts for low temperature liquid phase c umene oxidation. Catalytic and structural properties of Fe-O/Al2O3 catalyst s were studied by kinetic measurements combined with other techniques in or der to obtain information about the nature of catalytic active centers and the selectivity of the cumene liquid-phase oxidation in the presence of sin gle and mixed oxides. Our results allow us to expect a bifunctional role of the Fe-O/Al2O3 surface as a combined participation of Lewis acid and termi nal oxygen centers by a proposed mechanism which is known for homogeneous c atalysis and is non-typical for heterogeneous catalytic oxidation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.