Activity of Aniline Methylation over Fe-Cu-Cr Ternary Spinel Systems

A series of spinels having thegeneral formula CuCr2-xFexO4 with x=0.25,0.75, 1.25, 1.75 were prepared by co-precipitation method. The catalysts werecharacterized by various physico-chemical methods like XRD, BET, UV-DRS, SEM,EDX, TPD etc. The reaction of aniline with methanol was studied in a fixed-bedreactor system as a potential source for the production of various methylanilines. It was observed that systems possessing low ‘x’ values are highlyselective and active for N-monoalkylation of aniline leading toN-methylaniline. Reaction parameters were properly varied to optimize thereaction conditions for obtaining N-methylaniline selectively and in betteryield. Among the systems CuCr1.75Fe0.25O4 isremarkable due to its very high activity and excellent stability. Under theoptimized conditions N-methylaniline selectivity exceeded 91%. CuCr1.25Fe0.75O4gives better conversion than CuCr1.75Fe0.25O4in CuCr2-xFexO4 series. The Lewis acid sitesof the catalysts are mainly responsible for the good catalytic performance. ？ 2014 BCREC UNDIP. All rights reserved Submitted: 18th July 2013; Revised: 5th November 2013; Accepted: 1st December 2013 [How to Cite: George, R., George, K., Sugunan, S. (2014). Activity of Aniline Methylation over Fe-Cu-Cr Ternary Spinel Systems. Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis, 9 (1): 39-44. (doi:10.9767/bcrec.9.1.5169.39-44)] [Permalink/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.9.1.5169.39-44