Utilisation of gold nanoparticles on amine-functionalised UiO-66 (NH2-UiO-66) nanocrystals for selective tandem catalytic reactions

Abstract

Colloidal deposition of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) onto NH₂-UiO-66 nanocrystals has been demonstrated with the resulting hybrid catalyst proving robust and versatile for one-pot, heterogeneous conversions involving the selective oxidation of primary alcohols in tandem with Knoevenagel condensation reactions. Within these systems, structure–property correlations have been established to confirm that the active sites for the oxidation and condensation reactions are intrinsically correlated with the Au NPs and pendant amine groups respectively.