Titanium oxide catalysts, hydrogen production from water

Enichem made one of the most important steps forward in the development of general heterogeneous oxidation catalysts in the early 1990s with the commercialization of titanium silicate (TS-1) catalysts. TS-1 has a structure similar to ZSM-5 in which the aluminium has been replaced by titanium it is prepared by reaction of tetraethylorthosilicate and tetra-ethylorthotitanate in the presence of an organic base such as tetrapropy-lammonium hydroxide. This catalyst is especially useful for oxidation reactions using hydrogen peroxide (Scheme 4.11), from which the only byproduct is water, clean production of hydroquinone being one of the possibilities. 

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