Oxidation of alcohols using supported gold and gold–palladium nanoparticles

Abstract

Interplay of theory and computation in chemistryexamples from on-water organic catalysis, enzyme catalysis, and single-molecule fluctuations

Hydrotalcite‐Supported Gold Catalyst for the Oxidant‐Free Dehydrogenation of Benzyl Alcohol: Studies on Support and Gold Size Effects

“…The formation of toluene was also observed with high selectivity in the dehydrogenation of benzyl alcohol over an Au-Pd/TiO 2 catalyst. [36] Our calculation reveals that the disproportionation of benzyl alcohol into benzaldehyde and toluene [Eq. (2)] is thermodynamically feasible [DG…”

The benzaldehyde oxidation paradox explained by the interception of peroxy radical by benzyl alcohol

“…The oxidation of pure benzaldehyde was conducted under conditions analogous to those employed in our previous studies of the aerobic benzyl alcohol oxidation 17,29 . Benzaldehyde was oxidized under solvent-less conditions without a catalyst at 353 K in a glass reactor under 1 atm pressure of O 2 .…”

“…In the literature, many researchers have reported the aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde, using a variety of catalytic systems, including supported metal catalysts, with yields up to B99% [9][10][11][12][13][14] , implying that further oxidation to give benzoic acid does not take place. For example, we recently reported the solvent-less, aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde using supported gold or gold-palladium nanoparticles as catalysts with a selectivity of 99% to benzaldehyde 6,[15][16][17][18] . These nanoparticlebased catalysts have also been reported for the selective aerobic oxidation of many other alcohols including aliphatic alcohols like 1-octanol with a very high selectivity to octanal 6,19 .…”

Catalysis using colloidal-supported gold-based nanoparticles

“…The choice of support (carbon versus titania) was also shown to significantly affect both catalytic activity and the distribution of products (selectivity), with carbon-supported materials exhibiting both an increase of activity by a factor of 2, and a lower selectivity to benzaldehyde at isoconversion compared to the analogous TiO 2 -supported catalysts (Table 2). Mechanistic studies were performed for the oxidation of benzyl alcohol using an Au-Pd alloy catalyst synthesised by colloidal method, and it was found that in the absence of oxygen benzyl alcohol was transformed into benzaldehyde and toluene at initial equal rates [29]. The introduction of oxygen significantly increased the rate of benzyl alcohol consumption and benzaldehyde production at the expense of toluene formation.…”