Selective hydrogenation of phenol to cyclohexanone by palladium on alumina/lanthanide oxides

The industrial production of cylcohexanone commonly involves the oxidation of cyclohexane or the hydrogenation of phenol. For industrial processes using a simple, clean, and low price method is critical. In this work, we leverage high selectivity, environmental friendliness, and lower energy consumption of palladium supported on mixture of alumina and lanthanide oxides (such as Lanthanum, Cerium, Europium, Terbium and Holmium) with different mole ratios and employed them for one stage hydrogenation of phenol to Cyclohexanone under mild conditions (80°C and 3 bars H2) [1]. Under experimental conditions in this paper, by using Gas Chromatography, 99.8% conversion of phenol with 96.3% selectivity to cyclohexanone was obtained with Pd supported on alumina/lanthanum oxide/cerium oxide with mole ratio of 9:1:1 at 80°C and 3 bar H2 pressure [2]. For characterization of prepared catalysts scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and volumetric isothermal nitrogen gas adsorption-desorption method (BET) were used.