Vapour phase oxidation of benzyl alcohol on A<inf>2</inf>BO<inf>4</inf> type perovskite related oxide

The substitution of strontium at lanthanum site in the sublattice of La2CuO4 results in the formation of Cu3+ species and formation of defects in the oxygen sublattice. As the strontium content increases the oxygen non-stoichiometry increases, whereas Cu3+. content attains maximum at x = 0.3. As the oxygen non-stoichiometry (δ) increases, the selectivity towards toluene increases, thus showing that formation of toluene depends on the oxygen non-stoichiometry. When the reaction is carried out in nitrogen atmosphere the LaCuO4 system shows good selectivity towards toluene indicating the dependence of toluene selectivity on the atmosphere in which the reaction is carried out.