Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2019, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (12): 1924-1933.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(19)63429-7

• Articles • Previous Articles    

Highly efficient base-free aerobic oxidation of alcohols over gold nanoparticles supported on ZnO-CuO mixed oxides

Wei Wanga,b, Yan Xiea, Shaohua Zhanga, Xing Liua, Liyun Zhangc, Bingsen Zhangc, Masatake Harutaa,d, Jiahui Huanga   

  1. a Gold Catalysis Research Center, State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, Liaoning, China;
    b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China;
    c Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, Liaoning, China;
    d Research Center for Gold Chemistry, Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0379, Japan
  • Received:2019-04-29 Revised:2019-06-23 Online:2019-12-18 Published:2019-09-21
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21606219), and the "Transformational Technologies for Clean Energy and Demonstration", Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA21030900).

Abstract: The design and preparation of suitable supports are of great importance for gold catalysts to attain excellent catalytic performance for alcohol oxidation. In this work, we found that ZnO-CuO mixed oxides supported gold catalysts showed much better catalytic activity for base-free aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol than Au/ZnO and Au/CuO catalysts, and among them Au/Zn0.7Cu0.3O displayed the best catalytic performance. In addition, the Au/Zn0.7Cu0.3O catalyst could selectively catalyze the aerobic oxidation of a wide range of alcohols to produce the corresponding carbonyl compounds with high yields under mild conditions without base. Further characterizations indicated that the outstanding catalytic performance of Au/Zn0.7Cu0.3O was correlated with the small size of Au nanoparticles (NPs), good low-temperature reducibility, high concentration of surface oxygen species, and collaborative interaction between Au NPs and mixed oxide.

Key words: Gold catalysis, ZnO-CuO mixed oxides, Alcohols, Aerobic oxidation, Base-free reaction