CuO-ZnO-MgO as sustainable and selective catalyst towards synthesis of cyclohexanone by dehydrogenation of cyclohexanol over monovalent copper

Abstract

Cyclohexanone is the key ingredient for the manufacture of ε-caprolactam which is used for making Nylon 6. In this work, non-oxidative vapor phase dehydrogenation of cyclohexanol to cyclohexanone was carried out over monovalent copper using CuZnMg catalyst. The catalyst was prepared by co-precipitation method and characterized using different techniques, viz. XRD, FTIR, TPD, TPR, TGA, BET, SEM, EDX, and XPS. Cyclohexanol conversion of 55.0 % was resulted with 99.2 % selectivity of cyclohexanone at 260 ℃ with WHSV of 2.34 h−1. Time on stream study (125 h) and catalyst reusability studies were performed to find that the catalyst was robust, stable and easily reusable. A reaction mechanism over surface Cu+ is discussed and kinetics deduced.