LIQUID PHASE OXIDATION OF TOLUEN TO BENZOIC ACID
Project no. 1378 · Status: Kapanmış · 2017
Summary
Benzoic acid is an important precursor for the synthesis of many other organic substances. It is produced commercially by the catalytic oxidation of toluene in both vapor and liquid phases. Liquid-phase oxidation is easy to operate and achieve high selectivity under relatively mild reaction conditions. In this project, liquid phase oxidation of toluene was used to produce benzoic acid. In this study, three kind of catalyst(vanadium,manganese,cerium) were prepared and tested. Commercial catalyst also was used. Acetonitrile was used as solvent whereas hydrogen peroxide was used as oxidant. Experiments were completed at room temperature (25 °C) with each catalyst. Samples were taken at different time intervals at the end of each set and analyzed with Gas Chromatography method. At the end of the 3 hour reaction period, the highest conversion and selectivity of catalyst-1 were determined as 0.55 and 0.57 respectively.