Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2014, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (11): 1846-1857.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(14)60159-5

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Synergistic effect on Au-Pd bimetallic catalyst during oxidation of benzyl alcohol to sodium benzoate

Zhaoyan Zhang, Ying Wang, Xian Li, Wei-Lin Dai   

  1. Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
  • Received:2014-05-06 Revised:2014-05-26 Online:2014-11-06 Published:2014-11-06
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2012CB224804), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21373054, 21173052), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai Science and Technology Committee (08DZ2270500).

Abstract:

A series of AuPd/CeO2 bimetallic catalysts with different Au/Pd molar ratios were investigated and their catalytic performance in the oxidation of benzyl alcohol to sodium benzoate and benzoic acid under solvent-free conditions was studied. The supported catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The Au-Pd nanoparticles were successfully deposited onto CeO2 as a homogeneous alloy. The activity of the bimetallic catalysts was superior to that of the corresponding monometallic catalysts. This improvement was attributed to the synergistic effect between Au and Pd. The catalyst with an Au/Pd molar ratio of 3/1 showed the best catalytic performance (the yield of benzoic acid reached 92%), and it could be easily recovered and reused for more than seven successive reactions without significant loss of activity.

Key words: Gold, Palladium, Ceria, Bimetallic catalyst, Benzyl alcohol, Catalytic oxidation, Benzoate