Propylene oxide (PO) is a versatile
chemical intermediate, and
by volume it is among the top 50 chemicals produced in the world.
The catalytic conversion of propylene to PO by molecular oxygen with
minimum waste production is of high significance from an academic
as well as an industrial point of view. We have developed a new synthesis
strategy to prepare 2–5 nm metallic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)
supported on tungsten oxide (WO3) nanorods with diameters
between 30 and 40 nm, in the presence of cationic surfactant (cetyltrimethylammonium
bromide: CTAB), capping agent (polyvinylpyrrolidone: PVP), and hydrazine.
The synergy between the surface AgNPs and WO3 nanorods
facilitates the dissociation of molecular oxygen on the metallic Ag
surface to produce silver oxide, which then transfers its oxygen to
the propylene to form PO selectively. The catalyst exhibits a PO production
rate of 6.1 × 10–2 mol gcat
–1 h–1, which is almost comparable
with the industrial ethylene-to-ethylene oxide production rate.
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