Highly selective epoxidation of styrene over mesoporous Au–Ti–SBA-15 via photocatalysis process: Synthesis, characterization, and catalytic application

Highly ordered Au–Ti–SBA-15 mesoporous molecular sieves were successfully synthesized by one-pot hydrothermal synthesis in acid medium, and were characterized by XRD, UV–vis, SEM, element-mapping, HRTEM, N2 adsorption, XPS, 29Si MAS NMR, NH3-TPD and FT-IR. The as-prepared Au–Ti–SBA-15 samples were possessed of highly ordered mesostructures with larger pore diameter, pore volume and uniform mesopore size distribution. In the oxidation of styrene with H2O2 as the oxidant over Au–Ti–SBA-15 catalyst under photo-irradiation, reaction parameters, such as molar ratio of H2O2 to styrene, reaction time, solvent, the amount of catalyst, catalyst species, and the amount of 3% NaOH, were conditioned at length. As a result, highly selective epoxidation of styrene over catalyst was carried out perfectly for 10 min with high TOF of 4.75 × 103 min−1.