Graham Hutchings, Christopher Kiely et al. have found that trimetallic Au-Pd-Pt nanoparticles supported on activated carbon are highly active and selective catalysts for the solvent-free aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol.
In their recently published paper, they demonstrate that when a small amount of Pt metal is alloyed into Au-Pd sols, a high selectivity toward benzaldehyde can be achieved while still preserving high conversion levels. Their work is an exciting step towards making the industrially very important process of oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes cheap and environmentally friendly.
Read this HOT article today:
Switching-off toluene formation in the solvent-free oxidation of benzyl alcohol using supported trimetallic Au–Pd–Pt nanoparticles
Qian He, Peter J. Miedziak, Lokesh Kesavan, Nikolaos Dimitratos, Meenakshisundaram Sankar, Jose Antonio Lopez-Sanchez, Michael M. Forde, Jennifer K. Edwards, David W. Knight, Stuart H. Taylor, Christopher J. Kiely and Graham J. Hutchings
DOI: 10.1039/C2FD20153D
They recently presented and discussed their paper at the Faraday 162 meeting in Berlin.