Fabrication of Ultra-Small Ruthenium Nanoparticles on Porous Modified Reduced Graphene Oxide and its Application in Solvent-Free Oxidation ofCyclohexene with Molecular Oxygen

In the present work, Ruthenium nanoparticles were synthesized on functionalized reducedgraphene oxide. First, the surface of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was modified with twopara-arsanilic acid and dithiooxamide promoters to create the rGO with scattered hydrophilicpositions. The Ruthenium nanoparticles were synthesised and immobilized simultaneously insmall hydrophilic micro reactors in a mild condition. Characterization of synthesised nanocatalystwas confirmed with different techniques such as TEM, XRD, FT-IR, and SEM. TEMimages of synthesized catalyst show the Ru nanoparticles have diameters less than 6nm. Designednanonanocatalyst was investigated for the selective liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexenewith molecular oxygen in an autoclave under solvent free condition which after optimizedconditions a maximum of 91% conversion and 90% selectivity was obtained. The catalyticactivity over RGO-AO-TO/Ru recycled catalyst remained at a satisfactory state after atleast 5 runs.