Highly efficient solvent-free aerobic oxidation of ethylbenzene over hybrid Zn-Cr layered double hydroxide/carbon nanotubes nanocomposite

A new hybrid Zn-Cr layered double hydroxide/carbon nanotubes (ZnCr-LDH/CNTs) nanocomposite was fabricated and employed as a high performing and stable catalyst for aerobic oxidation of ethylbenzene (EB) into acetophenone (AP). Small-sized ZnCr-LDH nanocrystals could be highly dispersed and tightly anchored onto acid-treated CNTs, forming strong interactions between them. As-assembled ZnCr-LDH/CNTs exhibited an excellent catalytic performance with a high acetophenone selectivity of 93.7% at EB conversion of 54.2%, as well as a turnover number of 2532 mol/mol. Such unprecedented efficiency of ZnCr-LDH/CNTs originated from both highly dispersed active Cr species and strong interactions between ZnCr-LDH nanocrystals and the CNTs matrix.