Surface oxygen vacancy-dependent and solvent effect on selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde over spinel CuMn2O4 with molecular oxygen

Selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde with molecular oxygen is a typical oxidation in synthetic chemistry. In present, Mn-Cu bimetal oxide spinel catalyst was prepared and characterized. The content of surface oxygen vacancies can be adjusted by the molar ratio of Cu to Mn during the preparation process and oxygen vacancies were found positively related to the activity of entitled reaction. The solvent effect on the reaction is investigated. The reaction conditions of the entitled reaction were optimized and the conversion of benzyl alcohol can reach 98.5 % with 100 % selectivity to benzaldehyde at 70°C for 8 h. The catalyst is stable and can be reused for 5 times without any significant decrease in its catalytic performance. In addition, the reaction was studied from the aspect of kinetic to reveal the reason of high selectivity.