Use of Magnesium Ferrite as Catalyst in Cannizaro Reaction

Magnesium ferrite was used to catalyse the cannizaro reaction of benzaldehyde in the presence of potassium hydroxide. Magnesium ferrite was prepared by hydrothermal process. Similarly Copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc etc. were prepared by same method. It was characterized by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), X-Ray Diffraction Spectroscopy (XRD), and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX). The crystalline size of magnesium ferrite was found to have 82.47 nm. These magnesium ferrites are nano-flowers in shape. It was found that the yield of the product (benzoic acid) in the presence of Mg ferrite was 49% which is almost 3.4 times the yield obtained in the absence of catalyst. Other metal ferrites were also used as a catalyst but we get higher yield with magnesium ferrite. A comparitive study was made with different metal ferrites as catalyst and found that the activity of metal ferrites followed the order-MgFe2O4 (49%) > CuFe2O4 (46 %) > Ni Fe2O4 (17.05 %) > ZnFe2O4 (5.8 %) > CoFe2O4 (1.1%)