Transition metal oxides catalytic activity

Hi. Cr, Mo, W. In contrast to group IV and V transition metals, the catalytic active oxidant is of another type for group VI transition metal-catalyzed epoxidations The transition-metal-oxo complexes, in which the oxygen that is transferred is bonded to the metal via a double bond, are the active oxidizing species. 

Selective partial oxidation of hydrocarbons poses considerable challenges to contemporary research. While by no means all, most catalytic oxidations are based on transition-metal oxides as active intermediates, and the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene over potassium-promoted iron oxides at a scale of about 20 Mt/year may serve as an example [1]. Despite this... 

For a better understanding of the factors that play a role in the catalytic selective reduction of nitrobenzene to nitrosobenzene some pieces of relevant information from previous work have to be considered. Favre et al.l6] found that oxides of various transition metals show catalytic activity in the mentioned reaction and a-Mn304 (Hausmannite) appeared to be the most active and selective catalyst. The function of nitrobenzene as an internal reducing agent has already been suggested by Zengell,] and is confirmed by Favre et al. Nitrobenzene can thus reduce as well as oxidize the catalyst... 

Raman spectroscopy has provided information on catalytically active transition metal oxide species (e. g. V, Nb, Cr, Mo, W, and Re) present on the surface of different oxide supports (e.g. alumina, titania, zirconia, niobia, and silica). The structures of the surface metal oxide species were reflected in the terminal M=0 and bridging M-O-M vibrations. The location of the surface metal oxide species on the oxide supports was determined by monitoring the specific surface hydroxyls of the support that were being titrated. The surface coverage of the metal oxide species on the oxide supports could be quantitatively obtained, because at monolayer coverage all the reactive surface hydroxyls were titrated and additional metal oxide resulted in the formation of crystalline metal oxide particles. The nature of surface Lewis and Bronsted acid sites in supported metal oxide catalysts has been determined by adsorbing probe mole-... 

These reactions demonstrate the Brflnsted base role of adsorbed oxygen perviously found on Ag(llO) and show further that more active transition metals which themselves activate C-H bonds catalytically oxidize via a two-step mechanism in which the surface intermediates are scavenged by adsorbed oxygen. 

Transition metal oxides represent a prominent class of partial oxidation catalysts [1-3]. Nevertheless, materials belonging to this class are also active in catalytic combustion. Total oxidation processes for environmental protection are mostly carried out industriaUy on the much more expensive noble metal-based catalysts [4]. Total oxidation is directly related to partial oxidation, athough opposes to it. Thus, investigations on the mechanism of catalytic combustion by transition metal oxides can be useful both to avoid it in partial oxidation and to develop new cheaper materials for catalytic combustion processes. However, although some aspects of the selective oxidation mechanisms appear to be rather established, like the involvement of lattice catalyst oxygen (nucleophilic oxygen) in Mars-van Krevelen type redox cycles [5], others are still uncompletely clarified. Even less is known on the mechanism of total oxidation over transition metal oxides [1-4,6]. 

We have summarized below recent results concerning spectroscopic / flow reactor investigations of hydrocarbons partial and total oxidation on different transition metal oxide catalysts. The aim of this study is to have more information on the mechanisms of the catalytic activity of transition metal oxides, to better establish selective and total oxidation ways at the catalyst surface, and to search for partial oxidation products from light alkane conversion. 

Attempts to achieve selective oxidations of hydrocarbons or other compounds when the desired site of attack is remote from an activating functional group are faced with several difficulties. With powerful transition-metal oxidants, the initial oxidation products are almost always more susceptible to oxidation than the starting material. When a hydrocarbon is oxidized, it is likely to be oxidized to a carboxylic acid, with chain cleavage by successive oxidation of alcohol and carbonyl intermediates. There are a few circumstances under which oxidations of hydrocarbons can be synthetically useful processes. One group involves catalytic industrial processes. Much effort has been expended on the development of selective catalytic oxidation processes and several have economic importance. We focus on several reactions that are used on a laboratory scale. 

In 1971, LDHs containing different metal cations (such as Mg, Zn, Ni, Cr, Co, Mn and Al) with carbonate as interlayer anions, calcined at 473-723 K and partially or completely chlorinated, were reported to be effective as supports for Ziegler catalysts in the polymerization of olefins [8], with the maximum catalytic activity of polyethylene production observed for Mg/Mn/Al - CO3 LDH calcined at 473 K. Even earher, calcined Mg/Al LDHs were used to support Ce02 for SO removal from the emissions from fluidized catalytic cracking units (FCCU) [9,10]. Some transition metal oxides have also been... 

Other transition-metal oxidants can convert alkenes to epoxides. The most useful procedures involve /-butyl hydroperoxide as the stoichiometric oxidant in combination with vanadium, molybdenum, or titanium compounds. The most reliable substrates for oxidation are allylic alcohols. The hydroxyl group of the alcohol plays both an activating and a stereodirecting role in these reactions. /-Butyl hydroperoxide and a catalytic amount of VO(acac)2 convert allylic alcohols to the corresponding epoxides in good yields.44 The reaction proceeds through a complex in which the allylic alcohol is coordinated to... 

The transition metal based catalytic species derived from hydrogen peroxide or alkyl hydroperoxides are currently regarded as the most active oxidants for the majority of inorganic and organic substrates " An understanding of the mechanism of these processes is therefore a crucial point in the chemistry of catalytic oxidations. This knowledge allows one to predict not only the nature of the products in a given process, but also the stereochemical outcome in asymmetric reactions. 

Since pure mesoporous silica phases does not show any catalytic activity many successful attempts have been made to vary the inorganic composition towards transition metal oxides or metal chalcogenides [5-12], In particular the semiconducting properties of the latter offer a great range of possible applications in materials chemistry. 

The same transition metal systems which activate alkenes, alkadienes and alkynes to undergo nucleophilic attack by heteroatom nucleophiles also promote the reaction of carbon nucleophiles with these unsaturated compounds, and most of the chemistry in Scheme 1 in Section 3.1.2 of this volume is also applicable in these systems. However two additional problems which seriously limit the synthetic utility of these reactions are encountered with carbon nucleophiles. Most carbanions arc strong reducing agents, while many electrophilic metals such as palladium(II) are readily reduced. Thus, oxidative coupling of the carbanion, with concomitant reduction of the metal, is often encountered when carbon nucleophiles arc studied. In addition, catalytic cycles invariably require reoxidation of the metal used to activate the alkene [usually palladium(II)]. Since carbanions are more readily oxidized than are the metals used, catalysis of alkene, diene and alkyne alkylation has rarely been achieved. Thus, virtually all of the reactions discussed below require stoichiometric quantities of the transition metal, and are practical only when the ease of the transformation or the value of the product overcomes the inherent cost of using large amounts of often expensive transition metals. 

As for the complete oxidation of propene, propane and methane, Nieuwenhuys and coworkers studied the influence of metal oxides additives on the catalytic activity of Au/Al203 [109-115], The addition of 3d transition metal oxides (MnOx, CoOx or FeOx), which were active by themselves, or ceria that was poorly active by itself promoted the catalytic activity of Au/Al203 in the total oxidation of propene [112]. The most active catalyst was Au/Ce0x/Al203, with a T95 at 497 K and with a high stability. In these cases, ceria and the transition metal oxides may act as co-catalysts and the role is twofold it stabilizes the Au NPs against sintering (ceria)... 

One of the important solutions to the known difficulties should be found among conjugated catalytic systems which simulate oxidation enzyme operation. In this branch all the research and attempts are aimed at immobilizing transition metal complexes - enzyme active site analogues. 

---