Effect of calcination temperature of the support and the catalyst of WO₃/SnO₂ on the catalytic oxidation of 1,2-benzenedimethanol by H₂O₂

A series of WO₃/SnO₂ composite catalysts for the catalytic oxidation were prepared by co-precipitation-impregnation method and characterized with various techniques. The characterization results showed that the calcination temperature of the catalyst and the support was essential to the structural evolution of the WO₃/SnO₂. The studies of the catalytic behavior of WO₃/SnO₂ catalyst in the selective oxidation of 1,2-benzenedimethanol to phthalide using aqueous H ₂O₂ as the oxidant suggested that the optimized calcination temperature of the support and the catalyst was 1023 K and 823 K, respectively, which was mainly attributed to the high dispersion of tungsten species and few W⁶⁺ ions entered into SnO₂ lattice. The latter will decrease inevitably the amount of surface active tungsten species.