Selective vapor‐phase oxidation of o‐xylene to phthalic anhydride over Co‐Mn/H3PW12O40@TiO2 using molecular oxygen as a green oxidant

The oxidation of o‐xylene to phthalic anhydride over Co‐Mn/H₃PW₁₂O₄₀@TiO₂ was investigated. The experimental results demonstrated that the prepared catalyst effectively catalyzed the oxidation of o‐xylene to phthalic anhydride. Also, the synergistic effect between three metals plays vital roles in this reaction. From a green chemistry point of view, this method is environmentally friendly due to carrying out the oxidation in a fixed‐bed reactor under solvent‐free condition and using molecular oxygen as a green and cheap oxidizing agent. The resulting solid catalysts were characterized by FT‐IR, XRD, XPS, ICP‐OES, FESEM, TEM, EDX, DR‐UV spectroscopy, BET and thermogravimetric analysis. The oxidation of o‐xylene yields four products: o‐tolualdehyde, phthaldialdehyde, phthalide and finally phthalic anhydride as the main product. The reaction conditions for oxidation of o‐xylene were optimized by varying the temperature, weight hourly space velocity and oxygen flow rate (contact time). The optimum weight percentage of phosphotungstic acid (HPW) and Co/Mn for phthalic anhydride production were 15 wt % and 2 wt%, respectively. The best Co/Mn ratio was found to be 10/1. Oxygen flow rate was very important on the phthalic anhydride formation. The optimum conditions for oxidation of o‐xylene were T = 370 °C, WHSV = 0.5 h^?1 and oxygen flow rate = 10 mL min^?1. Under optimized conditions, a maximum of 88.2% conversion and 75.5% selectivity to phthalic anhydride was achieved with the fresh catalyst. Moreover, reusability of the catalyst was studied and catalytic activity remained unchanged after at least five cycles.