Tailoring oxygen vacancies in ZSM-5@MnOx catalysts for efficient oxidation of benzyl alcohol

Oxygen vacancy (OV) plays a significant role in the catalytic performance of oxidation catalysts. Herein, ZSM-5@MnO x catalyst with abundant OVs was firstly prepared by in-situ growth method. The prepared catalyst exhibits good catalytic activity for the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol (BA) to benzaldehyde (BAD) with ~100% BA conversion and ~100% BAD selectivity within 3 h. We have proved that the OV in ZSM-5@MnO x catalyst is the main active site for the BA oxidation. Besides, the OV formation mechanism is proposed based on the influences of modified ZSM-5 supports on OVs. Results show that sodium ions in ZSM-5 are conducive to enhancing the coating of MnO x on supports, and protons in ZSM-5 are beneficial for the formation of OVs by dehydrating with hydroxyls on MnO x . Based on the mechanism, we further enrich OVs by the deep dehydration to improve its catalytic performance. This work provides a novel route for the design of OVs in the ZSM-5@MnO x catalyst.