Selectivity and mechanism of cumene liquid-phase oxidation in the presence of powdered mixed iron–aluminum oxides prepared by alkoxy method Original Research Article

Sol–gel chemistry routes using metallo-organic complexes as precursors were used to prepare iron–aluminum catalysts for low temperature liquid phase cumene oxidation. Catalytic and structural properties of Fe–O/Al2O3 catalysts were studied by kinetic measurements combined with other techniques in order to obtain information about the nature of catalytic active centers and the selectivity of the cumene liquid-phase oxidation in the presence of single and mixed oxides. Our results allow us to expect a bifunctional role of the Fe–O/Al2O3 surface as a combined participation of Lewis acid and terminal oxygen centers by a proposed mechanism which is known for homogeneous catalysis and is non-typical for heterogeneous catalytic oxidation.