Selective reduction of nitrobenzene to nitrosobenzene over different kinds of trimanganese tetroxide catalysts Original Research Article

Selective reduction of nitrobenzene has been measured on several kinds of Mn3O4 catalysts obtained by different methods of preparation. Attention is mainly given to the relationship between catalytic performance of different Mn3O4 materials and their redox behaviour. It was found that the catalyst having the most active redox behavior favoured the formation of highly reduced product (e.g. aniline etc) but, the catalyst having the least active redox behaviour showed poor catalytic activity. It seems that the catalytic as well as the redox behavior of Mn3O4 could be related to the Jahn-Teller effect.