Facile Preparation and Catalytic Property of a Sandwich Composite Membrane

Membrane as a support for metal nanocatalysts, can greatly enhance the catalytic activity of metal nanoparticles and promote the efficient production and separation of products. In this study, a novel sandwich -structured composite membrane was designed and facilely fabricated by using palladium nanocatalysts as the core catalytic layer and two different structured PVDF layers as the outer layers. The composite membrane was used as a reaction interface as well as a separation barrier between reactants and products, efficiently realizing the catalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol and convenient separation of the product benzaldehyde. The membrane was characterized in detailed and the effects of the membrane structure and various reaction conditions on the catalytic oxidation were systematically investigated. The results indicated that the reaction could be conveniently carried out under very mild experimental conditions, obtaining the product benzaldehyde at as high selectivity as 93.17 %. The successful implementation of the sandwich membrane for the production of chlorinefree benzaldehyde provides a new method for the interface reaction.