Photocatalyzed oxidation of hydrocarbons in zeolite cages
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA (United States)
Oxidation of hydrocarbons by molecular oxygen is a key process in chemical industry. But reactions that use O{sub 2} as the primary oxidant often produce large amounts of unwanted byproducts. One major reason that selectivities are low is that the desired products (such as alcohols or carbonyls) are more easily oxidized by O{sub 2} than the parent hydrocarbon. The authors recently discovered a simple method that gives partial oxidation of small alkenes, alkanes, and alkyl-substituted benzenes by O{sub 2} at unprecedented selectivity, even at high conversion of the hydrocarbon. The approach is based on visible light-induced chemistry of hydrocarbon-O{sub 2} collisional pairs in the cages of large-pore zeolites. Reactions are conducted at ambient temperature in the absence of solvent or photosensitizer. Here the authors describe the most interesting reactions established thus far and define issues that pertain to scale-up of the method.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 260715
- Journal Information:
- CHEMTECH, Journal Name: CHEMTECH Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 26; ISSN 0009-2703; ISSN CHTEDD
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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