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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nanotechnol.
Sec. Nanocatalysis
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnano.2024.1513783
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging Leaders in Nanotechnology View all articles

Boosting Catalytic Efficiency of Nanostructured CuO-Supported Doped-CeO2 in Oxidative Coupling of Benzyl amines to N-Benzylidenebenzyl amines and Benzimidazoles: Impact of Acidic and Defect Sites

Provisionally accepted
Sailatha Sakinala Sailatha Sakinala 1Naga Pranava Shree KOTHOORI Naga Pranava Shree KOTHOORI 1Jeedi Suman Jeedi Suman 1Mohan Varkolu Mohan Varkolu 2Dr. Mallesham Baithy Dr. Mallesham Baithy 1*
  • 1 Department of Chemistry, Gandhi Institue of Technology and Management (GITAM) Hyderabad, Telangana, India, Hyderabad, India
  • 2 KL University Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study presents the rational synthesis of Cu-supported doped-CeO₂ catalysts designed for the oxidation of benzylamine, both in the absence and presence of 1,2-diaminobenzene. The catalysts were prepared using a two-step method and characterized by various techniques, including XRD, Raman spectroscopy, BET surface area analysis, NH₃-TPD, pyridine-FTIR, H₂-TPR, XPS, SEM, and TEM. Raman and XPS analyses confirmed the presence of oxygen vacancy sites, with CuO/CeO₂-ZrO₂ displaying the highest concentration of these sites. H₂-TPR revealed strong metal-support interactions, while NH₃-TPD indicated that CuO/CeO₂-ZrO₂ possessed the greatest number of acidic sites. The pyridine-FTIR results indicates both the acidic sites present on the catalyst surface. The Cu/CeZr sample exhibits the lowest Iu /// /ITotal ratio (0.0567) compared to the Cu/Ce (0.0843) and Cu/CeSi (0.0672) samples, indicating a higher number of Ce 3+ species or a greater number of oxygen defect sites in the sample. The catalyst demonstrated excellent performance in converting benzylamine to imines and was also highly effective in the synthesis of benzimidazole from benzylamine and 1,2-diaminobenzene, broadening its application potential. The superior catalytic activity is attributed to the abundant oxygen vacancies, redox properties, strong metal-support interactions, and acidic sites.Furthermore, the CuO/CeO₂-ZrO₂ catalyst maintained its efficiency over five consecutive cycles, exhibiting robustness, high functional group tolerance, and reduced reaction times, making it a promising system for diverse catalytic applications.

    Keywords: Cu-supported catalysts, Doped-CeO2, Benzylamine oxidation, Oxygen vacancies, Benzimidazole synthesis, Acidic sites and redox behavior

    Received: 19 Oct 2024; Accepted: 18 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sakinala, KOTHOORI, Suman, Varkolu and Baithy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Dr. Mallesham Baithy, Department of Chemistry, Gandhi Institue of Technology and Management (GITAM) Hyderabad, Telangana, India, Hyderabad, India

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