Effect of calcination temperature of the support and the catalyst of WO3/SnO2 on the catalytic oxidation of 1,2-benzenedimethanol by H2O2

A series of WO3/SnO2 composite catalysts for the catalytic oxidation were prepared by co-precipitation-impregnation method and characterized with various techniques. The characterization results showed that the calcination temperature of the catalyst and the support was essential to the structural evolution of the WO3/SnO2. The studies of the catalytic behavior of WO3/SnO2 catalyst in the selective oxidation of 1,2-benzenedimethanol to phthalide using aqueous H2O2 as the oxidant suggested that the optimized calcination temperature of the support and the catalyst was 1023 K and 823 K, respectively, which was mainly attributed to the high dispersion of tungsten species and few W6+ ions entered into SnO2 lattice. The latter will decrease inevitably the amount of surface active tungsten species. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.