The Study Of UF Membrane CuO And Oxygen-Enriched Air In The Oxidation Of Cumene

This paper uses X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to characterize the structure and morphology of CuO catalyst prepared with hollow fiber ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. The study tried to understand the catalytic role of CuO nano-particles prepared with ultrafiltration membranes in the conversion of cumene to cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) using membrane–enriched oxygen as oxidant. The study also evaluated the impact of the different CuO catalysts, amount of catalyst, reaction temperature and oxygen concentration on catalytic performance.Experimental results illustrate that the membranes-prepared CuO is present mainly in the form of orthorhombic sliced crystals having large amounts of defects. The CuO particles prepared with membranes have an effective diameter of 14 nm and a specific surface area of 36.91 m2/g. Increasing the flow velocity in UF lumen side and the ratio of NaOH to Cu(NO3)2 results in smaller crystals thus larger specific surface areas.At a reaction temperature of 90℃, membrane-enriched oxygen concentration of 28.8%, and membrane-prepared CuO catalyst dosage of 0.01 g/mL, the CHP yield at a reaction time of 10 hours is 28%. At the identical experimental conditions, the catalytic performance of the membrane-prepared CuO is 50-60% better than that of the commercial CuO and the conversion rate from cumene to CHP is doubled.The reaction is optimized at 29% oxygen, which is the commonly obtained concentration with membranes. Therefore, the combination of membrane-enriched oxygen with UF membrane-prepared CuO catalyst leads to the highest conversion and selectivity.