Promotional effect of Mn-doping on the catalytic performance of NiO sheets for the selective oxidation of styrene

The direct oxidation of styrene into high-value chemicals under mild reaction conditions remains a great challenge in both academia and industry. Herein, we report a successful electronic structure modulation of intrinsic NiO sheets via Mn-doping towards the oxidation of styrene. By doping NiO with only a small content of Mn (Mn/Ni atomic ratio of 0.030), a 75.0% yield of STO can be achieved under the optimized reaction conditions, which is 2.13 times higher than that of the pure NiO. In addition, the catalyst exhibits robust stability and good recycling performance. The performance enhancement originates from the synergistic effect regarding the abundant Ni(II) species, the rich oxygen vacancy sites and the large amount of surface redox centers. This work provides new findings of the elemental-doping-induced multifunctionality in designing powerful catalysts for the efficient and selective oxidation of styrene and beyond.