Advances in Catalytic Conversion of Benzene to Phenol using N2O as Oxidant

Nitrous oxide serves as a potential oxidant due to its low N₂-oxygen affinity and this potence of N₂O can be utilized in production of phenol from benzene. Phenol is a very important commodity chemical and produced via well-known cumene process which is energy-intensive and not environmentally friendly. Therefore, there is a demand for an alternative single-step gas-phase catalysis process. Fe-ZSM-5 is the classical catalyst for phenol production and AlphOx technology demonstrated a successful path for industrialization with N₂O as oxidant. In this chapter we have tried to provide a comparative study between classical mechanism of selective benzene oxidation to phenol with N₂O as oxidant, involved with Fe-ZSM-5 catalysts and that of acid-base catalysts involved with the alkali metals incorporated in zeolites in a nutshell.