Hydrophobic Modification of Microenvironment of Highly Dispersed Co3O4 Nanoparticles for the Catalytic Selective Oxidation of Ethylbenzene

Abstract Microenvironments in enzymes play crucial roles in controlling the activities of active centers. Here, hexagonal mesoporous silicas (HMS) with hydrophobic microenvironment was used to mimic the enzymes on the hydrocarbon oxidation with cobalt oxides incorporated as active sites. The variation of the structure and surface properties of the materials with phenyl group incorporation and the state of the supported cobalt oxides were carefully studied. It showed that cobalt oxides presented as Co 3 O 4 distributed evenly among the support, and the catalytic microenvironment was modified by the neighboring phenyl groups to be hydrophobic. This novel catalyst showed enhancement in the adsorption of ethylbenzene and in turn promoted the catalytic conversion than the hydrophilic one. 55.1 % conversion of ethylbenzene and 86.1 % selectivity for acetophenone could be obtained at 393 K for 6 h under 1.0 MPa of O 2 with free solvent. Hydrophobic microenvironment of pore surface was considered as an important factor for the better catalytic activity.