Impact of precursor materials and synthesis procedures on structure and performance of TiO2 supported Pd-catalysts in the gas phase acetoxylation of toluene

The current industrial production of benzyl acetate (BA), a valuable chemical, is based on the environmentally problematic chlorine route. Gas phase acetoxylation of toluene to BA, an eco-friendly reaction, over Pd-based catalysts using molecular oxygen can be an alternative for the production BA. In this work, Pd-Based catalysts were synthesized by using different precursor materials, thermal pretreatments, co-components and supports. Co-components (Cu, Sb, Mn, Co, Au) altered the valance state of Pd and hereby the activity and selectivity of the catalyst. Surprisingly, catalyst with very high selectivity between 95 to 99 % and good long term-stability (> 30 h) was obtained with rutile as support for 10 wt.-% Pd, 16 wt.-% Sb