Abstract
The catalytic hydrogenation of styrene oxide (SO) and phenylacetaldehyde (PAA) to 2-phenylethanol(2-PEA), with H2 in a tri-phase system, was investigated under various reaction conditions using supportedCo and Ni metal catalysts. The catalysts were produced from tri-component layered double hydroxides(i.e., hydrotalcite-like compounds (Ni)CoMgAl with 1 : 1 : 1 molar ratios), after calcination and reduction of thelayered double hydroxides precursors. Among the tested solids, the metallic Co-based catalyst has provento be an efficient material for the selective hydrogenation of PAA towards 2-PEA. Taking into account thehigh activity and selectivity of Al-SBA-15 for SO isomerization to PAA, a two-step process was proposed asan original and highly selective route for producing 2-PEA from SO. This process involves cheap catalystsand it includes a first step of SO isomerization reaction over a mild acid strength mesoporous solidfollowed by hydrogenation of the resulted PAA over a redox metallic catalyst.