One-pot synthesis of gold nanoparticles embedded in silica for cyclohexane oxidation

Abstract

Highly-dispersed gold nanoparticles embedded in amorphous silica (Au/M-SiO₂) were prepared by a facile one-pot process utilizing thioether functional groups to anchor AuCl₄⁻. A surprisingly high TOF up to 21 097 h⁻¹ was obtained over the 0.2% Au/M-SiO₂ catalyst, and the 1.5% Au/M-SiO₂ catalyst exhibited a high catalytic activity of 22.7% for cyclohexane conversion and 80.6% selectivity to cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone under dipolar non hydrogen bond donor (HBD) acetone solvent at 423 K and 1.5 MPa O₂ for 3 h.