Hydroxylation of phenol over MeAPO molecular sieves synthesized by vapor phase transport

Abstract

In this study, MeAPO-25 (Me = Fe, Cu, Mn) molecular sieves were first synthesized by a vapor phase transport method using tetramethyl guanidine as the template and applied to hydroxylation of phenol. The zeolites were characterized by XRD, SEM, FT-IR, and DR UV–Vis. As a result, MeAPO-21 and MeAPO-15 were synthesized by changing the Me/Al ratio. UV–Visible diffuse reflectance study suggested incorporation of heteroatoms into the framework and FT-IR study also supported these data. Effects of heteroatoms, contents of Me in MeAPO-25, reaction temperature, phenol/H₂O₂ mole ratios, reaction time and concentration of catalyst on the conversion of phenol, as well as on the selectivity were studied. FeAPO-25 exhibited a high catalytic activity at the mole ratio of FeO and Al₂O₃ equal to 0.1 in the synthesis gel, giving the phenol conversion of 88.75% and diphenols selectivity of 66.23% at 60°C within 3 h [n(phenol)/n(H₂O₂) = 0.75, m(FeAPO-25)/m(phenol) = 7.5%]. Experimental results indicated that the FeAPO-25 molecular sieve was a fairly promising candidate for the application in hydroxylation of phenol.