Hydrogen-free hydrogenation of nitrobenzene direct coupling with cyclohexanol dehydrogenation over ordered mesoporous MgO/SBA-15 supported Cu nanoparticles.

Direct catalytic coupling of nitrobenzene hydrogenation and cyclohexanol dehydrogenation was studied in the gas phase over mesoporous MgO-SBA15 supported Cu nanoparticles. This approach avoids an external supply of H and utilizes the liberated H from the dehydrogenation step of the first reactant for the hydrogenation reaction of the second reactant. A catalyst series consisting of four Cu/MgO-SBA15 mesoporous solids with varying Cu loadings (5-20 wt%) were prepared and systematically characterized by BET, ICP, XRD, TPR, TPD, FT-IR, SEM, XPS, and TEM. Among the series, the 15 wt% Cu catalyst exhibited the best performance with ≥82% conversion of nitrobenzene along with ≥89% cyclohexanol conversion. In addition, significantly higher yields of cyclohexanone (83%) and aniline (75%) could be achieved successfully over the same catalyst. Furthermore, the catalyst exhibited almost stable activity during 30 h time-on-stream with slow deactivation. The highly ordered mesoporous silica increases the metal-support interaction with smaller particles of Cu on the surface, and the synergism between acid-base sites is responsible for the improved catalytic activity.