Improvement of catalytic activity in selective oxidation of styrene with H2O2 over spinel Mg–Cu ferrite hollow spheres in water

Uniform spinel Mg–Cu ferrite hollow spheres were prepared using carbon spheres as templates. For comparison, solid Mg–Cu ferrite nanocrystals were also prepared by sol–gel auto-combustion, hydrothermal and coprecipitation methods. All the samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FT-IR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and N2 physisorption. The samples were found to be efficient catalysts for oxidation of styrene using hydrogen peroxide as oxidant. Especially, in the case of Mg0.5Cu0.5Fe2O4 hollow spheres, obvious improvement on catalytic activity was observed, and 21.2% of styrene conversion and 75.2% of selectivity for benzaldehyde were obtained at 80 °C for 6 h reaction in water. The catalyst can be magnetically separated easily for reuse and no obvious loss of activity was observed when reused in six consecutive runs.