Catalytic Dehydrogenation of Tetradecanol over Copper/Barium Oxide Catalysts

The liquid phase dehydrogenation of tetradecanol to tetradecanal has been studied over a series of CuO/BaO catalysts. Catalytic activity and selectivity to tetradecanal was found to depend on the ratio of easily reducible copper sites to less easily reducible copper sites. The catalysts have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, temperature programmed reduction, and thermo-gravimetric analysis. TPR results have shown that there were at least two types of copper oxides with varying reducibility. The relationship between the activity and area ratio of various copper oxide sites and a scheme for the conversion of tetradecanol were discussed