Hydrogen transfer reaction of cyclohexanone with 2-propanol catalysed by CeO<inf>2</inf>-ZnO materials: Promoting effect of ceria

Ce-Zn-O mixed oxides were prepared by amorphous citrate process and decomposition of the corresponding acetate precursors. The resulting materials were characterised by TGA, XRD, UV-Vis-DRS, EPR, SEM and surface area measurements. XRD and DRS results indicated fine dispersion of the ceria component in the ZnO matrix. EPR results clearly indicate the presence of oxygen vacancy and defect centres in the composite oxide. Addition of CeO2 to ZnO produced mixed oxides of high surface area compared to the pure ZnO. Hydrogen transfer reaction was carried out on these catalytic materials to investigate the effect of rare earth oxide on the activity of ZnO. Addition of ceria into zinc oxide was found to increase the catalytic activity for hydrogen transfer reaction. The catalytic activity also depended on the method of preparation. Citrate process results in uniformly dispersed mixed oxide with higher catalytic activity.