Photocatalytic Production of Benzoic Acid with Bismuth Tungstate
Benzoic acid is a flake or needle like crystalline with a smell of benzene or formaldehyde, usually made by selective oxidation of toluene. Toluene is obtained by a series of oxidation processes. Benzoic acid is an important food preservative, and is also used in medicine, dye carriers, plasticizers, spices and antibacterial agents. In the traditional chemical process, the production of benzoic acid from toluene requires selective oxidation of toluene under severe conditions, such as high temperature, high pressure, and acidic solvents. Generally speaking, the process is costly and polluting. Tungstate is a kind of photocatalyst which is widely used in industrial wastewater treatment, but some scholars have made use of the principle of petal type bismuth tungstate photocatalyst to produce benzoic acid. Because bismuth tungstate can use oxygen as oxidant to catalyze the oxidation of toluene and its derivatives, thereby simplifying the preparation of benzoic acid and reduc...