Catalytic gas phase ammoxidation of o-xylene

The present contribution is a brief account of investigations carried out on the ammoxidation of o-xylene over a few VPO and V₂O₅ based catalysts. The desired reaction product is phthalonitrile, however, phthalimide is the main product in most cases besides carbon oxides. The product distribution between nitrile and imide mainly depends on the reaction conditions and the nature of catalyst used. Influence of various reaction parameters such as effects of (i) reaction temperature, (ii) water vapour addition in the feed gas, (iii) NH₃/o-xylene mole ratio and (iv) space velocity were studied. It is interesting to note that the removal of water vapour from the feed gas has a highly pronounced promotional effect on the selectivity of phthalonitrile. The nitrile selectivity increased from 2.1 to 34% at the expense of phthalimide (decreased from 53 to 9%) with the complete removal of water vapour in the reactant feed mixture. This observation gives an indication that phthalonitrile being formed in the reaction is further getting hydrolysed to phthalimide via amide intermediate in presence of water vapour. Another interesting aspect of the present investigation is that the titania supported catalysts always gave significantly higher selectivities of phthalimide compared to phthalonitrile. Phthalimide yields up to 80% were reached on a VPO/TiO₂ catalyst.