Rationally designing a stable and sustainable metal oxide supported over the molecular sieve catalysts for oxidizing cyclohexane (CYH) to adipic acid (AA) is vital in industrial applications. The in-situ hydrothermal synthesis method successfully incorporated vanadium and nickel into the aluminium phosphate-5 (AlPO-5) molecular sieves (MFI structure). The XPS and NH3 TPD analysis disclosed that the addition of Ni into V-AlPO-5 stabilizes the ratio of V4+/V5+, creating strong acidic sites and the formation of NiOOH, which are a vital role for the selective CYH oxidation to AA. An in-situ DRIFT study reveals that nickel takes part in the formation of dicarboxylate ions as an intermediate to form AA. Our catalytic studies profoundly suggested that the Ni0.1V0.2AlPO-5 catalyst used for CYH oxidation gives better selectivity towards AA (53%) in the presence of oxygen at an appropriate amount of solvent without an initiator or promoter within a short time (3h).

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