Synthesis, characterization, and catalytic properties of chromium-containing hexagonal mesoporous aluminophosphate molecular sieves

Chromium-containing hexagonal mesoporous aluminophosphate molecular sieve materials were synthesized, characterized and evaluated for the oxidation of cyclohexane under mild conditions. The catalysts showed remarkable activity for the chosen reaction with very high substrate conversion and excellent product selectivity. In addition, recycling studies over the spent catalysts as well as studies on quenched solutions under the reaction conditions indicated no or very meager loss in activity; thus, the materials behaved truly as heterogeneous catalysts. This observation was well supported by ICP-AES analysis of the filtrates obtained from the washed catalysts where no leaching of active chromium species was detected. Furthermore, the reaction carried out using these filtrates confirmed the absence of active metal ions as it exhibited only a marginal activity.