The effect of different resin supports on activity and stability of Co catalyst for the oxidation of p-cresol to p-hydroxybenzadehyde

Four kinds of supported cobalt oxide catalysts using different resins as su pport were prepared. Their activity, selectivity and stability were observe d for the air oxidation of p-cresol to p-hydroxybenzadehyde (p-HBA) in meth anolic sodium hydroxide solution at 348 K. In the observational experiments , it was found that three kinds of supported cobalt oxide catalysts using g eneral macroporous resins as support were all of good catalytic activity, o ver 85% conversion of p-cresol and over 95% selectivity to p-HBA obtained w ithin 8 h of reaction, but the stability of these catalysts was related to each resin's composition and polarity. The reasons for the effect of the re sin supports on the stability of the catalysts were discussed. Some microin formation on the resin supports and the active component on the surface of support were obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and LR analyses of catalys ts. As a result, the macroporous strongly acidic action exchange resin-D072 -with 20-40 mesh was selected as an ideal support of Co catalyst for the ox idation of p-cresol to p-HBA, because D072-supported cobalt oxide catalyst exhibited both extremely high activity and good stability, retaining over 9 1% of conversion of p-cresol and selectivity to p-HBA as well as a stable c obalt content after it was used four times. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.