Boron-doped graphene as a metal-free catalyst for gas-phase oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde. Issue 20 (20th March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cheng, Wenjun; Liu, Xueting; Li, Na; Han, Jiatong; Li, Shuangming; Yu, Sansan
• Is Part Of: RSC advances. Volume 8:Issue 20(2018)
• Page Start: 11222
• Page End: 11229
• Publication Date: 2018-03-20
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540.5
• DOI: 10.1039/c8ra00290h
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2046-2069

Abstract

Abstract : Boron doped graphene for the oxidative dehydrogenation reactions. Abstract : Boron-doped graphene samples (BGs) with tunable boron content of 0–2.90 at% were synthesized and directly used in the gas-phase oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde, and showed excellent performance. XPS results indicated that the graphitic sp 2 B species (BC3 ) is the mainly boron dopant species incorporated in the graphene lattice, which could significantly improve the content of ketone carbonyl groups (CO) on the graphene. For instance, the contents of CO jumped from 1.93 to 4.19 at% while BC3 doped into the graphene lattice was only 0.35 at%. The CO is the active site of catalytic reaction, so BG has significantly improved catalytic activity. Compared to the un-doped graphene (G), the conversion of benzyl alcohol over BGs increased 2.35 times and the selectivity of benzaldehyde increased from 77.3% to 99.2%. Aerobic–anaerobic exchange experiments revealed that the superior catalytic performance of BG was achieved only under aerobic conditions. The study of the boron-doped carbocatalyst may also provide guidance for the design of surface modified carbon-based catalysts for the selective oxidation dehydrogenation of alcohols by regulating doping elements and their types.