Copper/MCM-41 as catalyst for the wet oxidation of phenol

A heterogeneous copper catalyst supported on mesoporous MCM-41 was develope d. The parent MCM-41 has a large pore area of over 1400 m(2)/g. Copper was chosen as the active element of catalyst and loaded into MCM-41 by adsorpti on at ambient temperature. The prepared catalysts were evaluated in the cat alytic wet oxidation of phenol solution with an initial concentration of 1, 300 ppm at 150 and 200 degreesC. The catalyst was found to be of high catal ytic activity. It is also shown that the catalyst with a higher copper load ing exhibits higher ability of accelerating the catalytic reaction to certa in extent but reaches its constant level afterwards. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scie nce B.V. All rights reserved.