A series of Co1+xFe2–xO4 (0≤x≤2) spinel nanowires was synthesized by nanocasting using SBA‐15 silica as hard template, which was characterized by X‐ray powder diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The Co1+xFe2–xO4 spinels were applied in the aerobic oxidation of aqueous 2‐propanol solutions to systematically study the influence of exposed Co and Fe cations on the catalytic properties. The activity of the catalysts was found to depend strongly on the Co content, showing an exponential increase of the reaction rate with increasing Co content. Ensembles of Co3+cus (coordinatively unsaturated) sites were identified as the active sites for selective 2‐propanol oxidation, which are assumed to consist of more than six Co ions. In addition, gas‐phase oxidation with and without water vapor co‐feeding was performed to achieve a comparison with liquid‐phase oxidation kinetics. An apparent activation energy of 94 kJ mol−1 was determined for 2‐propanol oxidation over Co3O4 in the liquid phase, which is in good agreement with the gas‐phase oxidation in the presence of water vapor. In contrast to gas‐phase conditions, the catalysts showed high stability and reusability in the aqueous phase with constant conversion in three consecutive runs.

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Different loadings of Cu single atoms were anchored on a graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) matrix using a two-step thermal synthesis method and applied in liquid-phase cyclohexene oxidation under mild conditions using molecular O 2 as the oxidizing agent. The oxidation state of Cu was determined to be Cu + , which is in linear coordination with two neighboring nitrogen atoms at a distance of 1.9 Å. The catalyst with 0.9 wt % Cu pyrolyzed at 380 °C was found to exhibit the best catalytic performance with the highest conversion up to 82% with an allylic selectivity of 55%. It also showed high reusability over four catalytic runs without any detectable Cu leaching. Cyclohexene oxidation followed first-order kinetics with an apparent activation energy of 66.2 kJ mol −1 . The addition of hydroquinone as a radical scavenger confirmed that cyclohexene oxidation proceeds via a radical mechanism. Time-resolved in situ attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy was carried out to qualitatively monitor the cyclohexene oxidation pathways. The comparison with the homogeneous analogue Cu(I) iodide indirectly verified the linearly N-coordinated single Cu(I) species to be the active sites for cyclohexene oxidation.

A series of spray-flame made LaCo_1−xFe_xO₃ nanoparticles showed promising activity for liquid-phase cyclohexene oxidation. Various oxidizing agents, i.e., O₂, H₂O₂ and tert-butyl hydroperoxide, led to different product selectivities.

By using the crystalline precursor decomposition approach and direct co‐precipitation the composition and mesostructure of cobalt‐based spinels can be controlled. A systematic substitution of cobalt with redox‐active iron and redox‐inactive magnesium and aluminum in a cobalt spinel with anisotropic particle morphology with a preferred 111 surface termination is presented, resulting in a substitution series including Co3O4, MgCo2O4, Co2FeO4, Co2AlO4 and CoFe2O4. The role of redox pairs in the spinels is investigated in chemical water oxidation by using ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN test), electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and H2O2 decomposition. Studying the effect of dominant surface termination, isotropic Co3O4 and CoFe2O4 catalysts with more or less spherical particles are compared to their anisotropic analogues. For CAN‐test and OER, Co3+ plays the major role for high activity. In H2O2 decomposition, Co2+ reveals itself to be of major importance. Redox active cations in the structure enhance the catalytic activity in all reactions. A benefit of a predominant 111 surface termination depends on the cobalt oxidation state in the as‐prepared catalysts and the investigated reaction.