Pd-Au nanoparticles supported reduced graphene oxide nanoplatelets toward aerobic selective oxidation of benzoyl alcohol

Abstract

In this paper, mono-metallic catalysts, palladium (Pd) and gold (Au) and bi-metallic, Au-Pd supported on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) synthesized by Sol Immobilization technique. The as fabricated catalysts (Pd/rGO, Au/rGO and Au-Pd/rGO) have been tested by various techniques (Raman Spectroscopy, FE-SEM, XRD and TEM) to examine the structural, compositional and morphological characteristics. The performance of catalysts on the production of benzaldehyde via benzyl alcohol (BnOH) oxidation was investigated adopting H2O2 as an oxidizing agent. In general, Au-Pd/rGO catalyst presented a remarkable superiority over Au/rGO and Pd/rGO. The Au-Pd/rGO catalyst gave the best reaction conversion ratio of 24.3%, while its selectivity for benzaldehyde was 87.5% using 10 mg catalyst mass, reaction temperature 80 oC and 50% H2O2