Design, Synthesis, and Characterization of Transition Metal Oxide Nanomaterials as Efficient Sorbents and Multifunctional Catalysts for Oxidation, Dehydrogenative Coupling, and Desulfurization Reactions

The research work presented here is focused on nanotechnological synthetic approaches for transition metal oxide nanomaterials and their applications in heterogeneous catalysis and adsorptive desulfurization reactions. Here, we discuss the controllable synthesis of functional nanomaterials and investigation of their structure-activity relationship in multiphase catalytic and sorption reactions. Among transition metal oxides, Co3O4 is well known for the presence of mobile oxygen, and thus is more reactive towards oxidation reactions. Aerobic oxidation under additive free conditions is highly desirable in organic synthesis reactions, from the viewpoint of green and sustainable chemistry. We demonstrate the activity enhancement of mesoporous cobalt oxide materials by substitutional doping of molybdenum ions. We discuss the surface chemistry in the production of active metal oxide nanoparticles and effect of lattice deformation on creating surface defects. High conversion and selectivity was achieved by controlling the surface area, Lewis acidity, and oxygen vacancy density of the solid catalyst in the liquid phase dehydrogenative coupling reactions. Synthesis of high surface area mesoporous cobalt molybdenum mixed metal oxide materials was accomplished using surfactant assisted inverse micelle method. The cobalt molybdenum oxide materials were investigated as a efficient desulfurization sorbent in a fixed bed reactor at low temperatures (°C)