Catalytic Activity of Prepared Ferrites for Benzylation of xylene

Abstract

In this study, different types of ferrites were prepared using a co-precipitation method. The synthesized ferrites include zinc ferrite (Zn-Fer), nickel ferrite (Ni-Fer), calcium ferrite (Ca-Fer), barium ferrite (Ba-Fer) and iron ferrite (Fe-Fer). These ferrites were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy. The prepared ferrites were used to catalyze the Friedel-crafts benzylation reaction of p-xylene (p-Xyl) using benzylchloride (BC) as benzylating agent. The liquid phase reaction was conducted at about 90 °C for 3 hours using p-Xyl/BC molar ratio of 15:1. The reaction products were detected by GC chromatograph equipped with FID detector. The ferrite samples were found to perform differently for the benzylation reaction of p-Xyl. Four ferrites i.e. (Fe-Fer), (Ca-Fer), (Ba-Fer) and (Ni-Fer) had given positive results and only zinc ferrite was found not active for this reaction. The formation of benzylated xylene products was explained by the electrophilic attack of benzyl cation on the xylene ring, whose formation is facilitated by the activity of the ferrite catalyst. The benzlyation reaction was observed not to proceed in the absence of ferrite catalyst.