Preparation, characterization and catalytic activity of a nano-Co(II)-catalyst as a high efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the selective oxidation of ethylbenzene, cyclohexene, and benzyl alcohol

This paper reports the preparation of a nano-Co(II)-catalyst (NCC) by anchoring of Co ions on immobilized bipyridylketone over the nano-sized SiO2/Al2O3 mixed oxides. The nano-Co(II)-catalyst has been characterized by elemental analysis, BET, FT-IR, DR UV–vis and SEM. The catalytic activity of the catalyst towards the oxidation of ethylbenzene, cyclohexene, and benzylalcohol to different chemically and pharmaceutically important products were evaluated with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) in the absence of solvent. Under optimized conditions, the nano-catalyst proved highly selective towards the acetophenone, 2-cyclohexene-1-one and benzaldehyde as reaction products, with excellent conversion rates.