Gold catalysis has continued to attract increasing attention due to its relatively unexplored catalytic activity compared to other noble metals. In particular, supported gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) can be successfully applied in wide range of oxidation reactions including CO oxidation, and aerobic oxidation of alcohols. Generally, the nature of support is believed to play a critical role on the catalytic activity in such reactions. The most common support materials that usually applied for AuNPs are mainly oxide carriers (e.g. Al2O3, TiO2 etc.). Recently, metal fluoride based materials are also being applied as effective supports in catalysis but only a very few examples are available in the literature. In this contribution, we present the application of metal oxide and its corresponding metal (oxy) fluoride as catalyst support for AuNPs and study their catalytic performance. Oxidation of benzyl alcohol (BA) to benzaldehyde (BAl) was selected as a model reaction. Gold catalysts (1 wt%) supported on (TiO2)-A and (TiF4-x(OH)x)-B, were prepared in two steps. First step deals with the preparation of colloidal AuNPs by the reduction of HAuCl4 in aqueous solution. In the second step, the above-prepared colloidal solution was impregnated onto supports A and B. The slurry was stirred for 2 h at r.t., filtered, washed, and then dried at 120 �C for 16 h. Obtained solids were calcined at 350 �C for 5 h in air. In term of activity, ccatalyst A displayed high catalytic activity with superior selectivity of BAl, while cat. B showed much less activity and selectivity despite its high surface area. This result suggests that the interaction of active phase with the support seems to depend on the nature of support used. In conclusion, results have shown that the catalytic activity was remarkably dependent on the nature of support, and the oxide support showed better activity than fluoride.

Comparison of the catalytic activity of supported gold nanoparticles on Ti-oxide and Ti-(oxy)-fluoride

248th National Meeting (2014)

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