The role of WO and dopants (ZrO and SiO) on CeO-based nanostructure catalysts in the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde under ambient conditions.

Herein, the efficacy of WO-promoted CeO-SiO and CeO-ZrO mixed oxide catalysts in the solvent-free selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde using molecular oxygen as an oxidant is reported. We evaluated the effects of the oxidant and catalyst concentration, reaction duration, and temperature on the reaction with an aim to optimize the reaction conditions. The as-prepared CeO, CeO-ZrO, CeO-SiO, WO/CeO, WO/CeO-ZrO, and WO/CeO-SiO catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N adsorption-desorption, Raman spectroscopy, temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia (TPD-NH), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).