FT-IR Study of Selective Oxidation Intermediates of Benzene on The Surface of Vanadia-Titania "Monolayer" Catalysts

The adsorption of benzene and the evolution of the adsorbed species upon heat treatment in oxygen over vanadia-titania have been studied by FT-IR spectroscopy. For comparison analogous experiments have been carried out by adsorbing phenol and pbenzoquinone. It has been demonstrated that benzene reacts with the clean surface producing different phenol and quinone species, some of which elvolve to maleic anhydride while other produce carboxylate species and carbon oxides by reaction in oxygen. Some modifications on the reaction network proposed in the literature for the heterogeneously-catalyzed oxidation of benzene have been suggested. \ua9 1990 Academic Press Inc