Direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide using Au-Pd-exchanged and supported heteropolyacid catalysts

15 Nov 2011

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) could be synthesized directly from molecular H₂ and O₂ using a supported heteropolyacid catalyst and water as solvent at ambient temperature.

Graham Hutchings and colleagues from Cardiff University, UK, prepared several Au-Pd exchanged supported Cs-heteropolyacid catalysts for application in the synthesis of H₂O₂. Currently, H₂O₂ is prepared from alkyl anthraquinone but this process requires high capital investment and the production and transport of very concentrated H₂O₂ solutions. By developing a direct synthesis process, these drawbacks could be avoided by giving small scale production of dilute H₂O₂ at the point of use.

In this work, the Au-Pd exchanged supported Cs-heteropolyacid catalysts developed by Hutchings showed excellent H₂O₂ synthesis activity and were considerably more effective in achieving high yields than previously reported catalysts. By performing the reaction at ambient temperature in water in the absence of acid or halide additives, this method offers a potentially cleaner and more sustainable route to H₂O₂.

This article is free to access until 15th December 2011! Click the link below to find out more…

Direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide using Au–Pd-exchanged and supported heteropolyacid catalysts at ambient temperature using water as solvent, Edwin N. Ntainjua, Marco Piccinini, Simon J. Freakley, James C. Pritchard, Jennifer K. Edwards, Albert F. Carley and Graham J. Hutchings, Green Chem., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C1GC15863E