Highly efficient V-Mo-Fe-O catalysts for selective oxidation of toluene to benzaldehyde

The V-Mo-Fe-O catalysts were synthesized by a sol-gel method, characterized and used for the selective oxidation of toluene to benzaldehyde with hydrogen peroxide. The results show that V-Mo-Fe-O catalyst is an effective catalyst, exhibiting a toluene conversion of 40.3%, and a benzaldehyde selectivity of 84.5% at 80 degrees C. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows that the catalyst has nanorod structure with a thin layer compound, which may be constitutive of iron molybdate while the main compound of catalyst is MoV2O8. Furthermore, the catalyst can be easily recycled and reused for four times without significant changes in its activity. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.