Fabrication and Characterization of Cu Nanoparticles Dispersed on ZnAl-Layered Double Hydroxide Nanocatalysts for the Oxidation of Cyclohexane

In the chemical industry, designing high-performance catalysts for the oxidation of cyclohexane into value-added products such as cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone (the combination is known as KA oil) is critical. The catalytic activity of copper nanoparticles supported on layered double hydroxide (LDH) for the liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexane was examined in this study. In this work, we have developed Cu nanoparticles supported on layered double hydroxide nanocatalysts, abbreviated as CuNPs@LDH, by the chemical reduction approach. Various physical methods were used to characterize the resulting material, including ICP-AES, XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDX, HRTEM, and BET surface area. The catalytic activity of copper nanoparticles supported on LDH was examined for the liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexane with tert-butyl hydroperoxide. CuNPs@LDH nanocatalysts with an excellent 52.3% conversion of cyclohexane with 97.2% selectivity of KA oil was obtained after 6 h at 353 K. The hot filtration test further indicated that CuNPs@LDH was a heterogeneous catalyst that could be recycled at least six times without suffering a substantial reduction in its catalytic activity.