Abstract

Selective oxidation, which is crucial in diverse chemical industries, transforms harmful chemicals into valuable compounds. Heterogeneous sonocatalysis, an emerging sustainable approach, urges in-depth exploration. In this work, we investigated N‑doped or non-doped carbonaceous materials as alternatives to scarce, economically sensitive metal-based catalysts.

Having synthesized diverse carbons using a hard-template technique, we subjected them to sonication at frequencies of 22, 100, 500, and 800 kHz with a 50% amplitude. Sonochemical reaction catalytic tests considerably increased the catalytic activity of C‑meso (non-doped mesoporous carbon material).

The scavenger test showed a radical formation when this catalyst was used. N‑doped carbons did not show adequate and consistent sonoactivity for the selective oxidation of 4‑Hydroxy‑3,5 dimethoxybenzyl alcohol in comparison with control conditions without sonication, which might be associated with an acid – base interaction between the catalysts and the substrate and sonoactivity prohibition by piridinic nitrogen in N‑doped catalysts.
 

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the National Science Center (NCN), Poland, for their generous support under the research project OPUS 20 No. 2020/39/B/ST5/00076

https://​pho​to​-cata​ly​sis​.org/​p​r​o​j​e​c​t​s​/​n​a​n​o​e​n​g​i​n​e​e​r​i​n​g​-​o​f​-​m​u​l​t​i​c​o​m​p​o​n​e​n​t​-​m​e​t​a​l​-​f​r​e​e​-​c​a​r​b​o​n​a​c​e​o​u​s​-​m​a​t​e​r​i​a​l​s​-​f​o​r​-​b​i​o-oil