To achieve high selectivity for catalytic reactions between two or more reactants on a heterogeneous catalyst, the relative concentrations of the reactive intermediates on the surface must be optimized. If species compete for binding sites, their concentrations depend on their relative binding strengths to the surface. In this article we describe a general framework for predicting the relative stability of organic intermediates involved in oxygen-assisted reactions on metallic gold with broad relevance to catalysis by metals. Combining theory and experiment, we establish that van der Waals interactions between the reactive intermediates and the surface, although weak, determine relative stabilities and thereby dictate the conditions for optimum selectivity. The inclusion of these interactions is essential for predicting these trends. The concepts and methods employed here have broad applicability for determining the stability of intermediates on the surfaces of catalytic metals and specifically demonstrate the critical role of weak interactions in determining reaction selectivity among reactions of complex molecules.
Nanoporous gold, a dilute alloy of Ag in Au, activates molecular oxygen and promotes the oxygen-assisted catalytic coupling of methanol. Because this trace amount of Ag inherent to nanoporous gold has been proposed as the source of oxygen activation, a thin film Ag/Au alloy surface was studied as a model system for probing the origin of this reactivity. Thin alloy layers of Ag(x)Au(1-x), with 0.15≤x≤0.40, were examined for dioxygen activation and methanol self-coupling. These alloy surfaces recombine atomic oxygen at different temperatures depending on the alloy composition. Total conversion of methanol to selective oxidation products, that is, formaldehyde and methyl formate, was achieved at low initial oxygen coverage and at low temperature. Reaction channels for methyl formate formation occurred on both Au and Au/Ag mixed sites with a ratio, as was predicted from the local 2-dimensional composition.
A general mechanism for the oxygen-assisted synthesis of amides over metallic gold and silver surfaces has been derived from the study of acetaldehyde and dimethylamine in combination with previous work, allowing detailed comparison of the two surfaces' reactivities. Facile acetylation of dimethylamine by acetaldehyde occurs with high selectivity on oxygen-covered silver and gold (111) crystals via a common overall mechanism with different rate-limiting steps on the two metals. Adsorbed atomic oxygen activates the N-H bond of the amine leading to the formation of an adsorbed amide, which attacks the carbonyl carbon of the aldehyde, forming an adsorbed hemiaminal. Because aldehydes are known to form readily from partial oxidation of alcohols, our mechanism also provides insight into the related catalytic coupling of alcohols and amines. The hemiaminal β-H eliminates to form the coupled amide product. On silver, β-H elimination from the hemiaminal is rate-limiting, whereas on gold desorption of the amide is the slow step. Silver exhibits high selectivity for the coupling reaction for adsorbed oxygen concentrations between 0.01 and 0.1 monolayer, whereas gold exhibits selectivity more strongly dependent on oxygen coverage, approaching 100% at 0.03 monolayer. The selectivity trends and difference in rate-limiting steps are likely due to the influence of the relative stability of the adsorbed hydroxyl groups on the two surfaces. Low surface coverages of oxygen lead to the highest selectivity. This study provides a general framework for the oxygen-assisted coupling of alcohols and aldehydes with amines over gold- and silver-based catalysts in either the vapor or the liquid phase.
Carboxylates are important intermediates in oxidative reactions on gold, as they are precursors to carboxylic acids and CO2; they may also act as site-blockers in oxidative coupling of alcohols, thereby decreasing both catalyst activity and selectivity. We demonstrate that the reaction selectivity and pathways for a prototype carboxylate, acetate, adsorbed on Au(111), are dramatically altered by the presence of coadsorbed atomic O. Finely tuning the initial oxygen coverage affords control of the product selectivity and the reaction pathway. Oxygen-assisted γ-C–H activation occurs with coadsorbed oxygen near 425 K, yielding mainly CO2 and formaldehyde, and a kinetic isotope effect is observed for these products. In the absence of coadsorbed oxygen, acetate reacts at 530 K by C–C bond cleavage to form CO2, methyl, and methyl acetate as well as minor products. These studies have led to the identification of a new synthetic pathway for ester formation, in which methyl (either produced in the reaction or introduced externally using methyl iodide) reacts with surface acetate to form methyl acetate. Detailed isotopic labeling studies using d 3-acetate, 13C-acetate, and 18O show that the methyl carbon forms mainly formaldehyde in the oxygen assisted reaction and methyl in the clean-surface reaction and that surface oxygen is incorporated into products in the low temperature, oxygen-assisted pathway. A complete mechanism is proposed and compared to the reaction of acetate on silver. These studies provide a detailed fundamental understanding of acetate chemistry on gold and demonstrate how the oxygen concentration can be used to tune selectivity.
Selective oxidative reactions promoted by gold depend critically on controlling the coverage and stability of adsorbed intermediates, as well as promoting specific bond activations of those intermediates. We demonstrate that acetate, a common intermediate in the oxidation of olefins, aldehydes, and alcohols, is destabilized by 7-10 kcal/mol by coadsorbed oxygen relative to its stability on the clean gold surface. The amount of destabilization depends on the oxygen coverage. Peak temperatures of products indicative of oxygen-assisted and clean-surface bond activation differ by up to 130 K. Experiments with d3-acetate show a kinetic isotope effect of 6.9 at 400 K, indicating that the rate-limiting step of the low temperature oxygen-assisted reaction is γ-CH bond breaking. This clearly demonstrates that coadsorbed oxygen activates γ-CH bonds on gold and suggests that an oxygen-assisted activation may also occur for β-CH bonds crucial in oxygen-assisted alcohol coupling on metallic gold catalysts, as predicted by theory.
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