Templated Synthesis of Mesoporous Co₃O₄ Nanostructures for the Liquid-Phase Aerobic Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol to Benzaldehyde

Mesoporous Co3O4 nanostructures, templated from different mesoporous silicas, SBA-3, SBA-5, and SBA-16, were used as catalysts for the liquid-phase selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol using molecular oxygen as the oxidant. The nanostructured Co3O4-16, templated from SBA-16, showed the best activity for the reaction, with 97.5% benzyl alcohol conversion and 100% benzaldehyde selectivity obtained after 3 h of reaction at 100 °C. This could be attributed to its large number of oxygen vacancies and low surface Co3+/Co2+ ratio that were beneficial to O2 activation, together with its three-dimensional nanostructure that facilitated the adsorption of benzyl alcohol, compared to Co3O4-3 and Co3O4-15. The material could be reused without losing activity if the organics adsorbed on the surface of the used sample were removed by calcination at 300 °C for 1 h. A mechanism for the reaction was proposed, considering that the activation of molecular oxygen was the rate-determining step of the reaction.