In situ spectroscopic investigation of oxidative dehydrogenation and disproportionation of benzyl alcohol

Ewa Nowicka; Jan P. Hofmann; Stewart F. Parker; Meenakshisundaram Sankar; Giacomo M. Lari; Simon A. Kondrat; David W. Knight; Donald Bethell; Bert M. Weckhuysen; Graham J. Hutchings

doi:10.1039/C3CP50710F

In situ spectroscopic investigation of oxidative dehydrogenation and disproportionation of benzyl alcohol†

Ewa Nowicka,^a Jan P. Hofmann,^b Stewart F. Parker,^c Meenakshisundaram Sankar,^b Giacomo M. Lari,^a Simon A. Kondrat,^a David W. Knight,^a Donald Bethell,^d Bert M. Weckhuysen^b and Graham J. Hutchings*^a

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* Corresponding authors

^a Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
E-mail: hutch@cardiff.ac.uk
Fax: +44 (0)2920-874-030

^b Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, 3584 CG Utrecht, The Netherlands

^c ISIS Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot Oxon OX11 0QX, UK

^d Department of Chemistry, Liverpool University, Liverpool, UK

Abstract

In the solvent free oxidation of benzyl alcohol, using supported gold–palladium nanoalloys, toluene is often one of major by-products and it is formed by the disproportionation of benzyl alcohol. Gold–palladium catalysts on acidic supports promote both the disproportionation of benzyl alcohol and oxidative dehydrogenation to form benzaldehyde. Basic supports completely switch off disproportionation and the gold–palladium nanoparticles catalyse the oxidative dehydrogenation reaction exclusively. In an attempt to provide further details on the course of these reactions, we have utilized in situ ATR-IR, in situ DRIFT and inelastic neutron scattering spectroscopic methods, and in this article we present the results of these in situ spectroscopic studies.

This article is part of the themed collection: Interfacial Phenomena in (De)hydrogenation Reactions

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

In situ spectroscopic investigation of oxidative dehydrogenation and disproportionation of benzyl alcohol†

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In situ spectroscopic investigation of oxidative dehydrogenation and disproportionation of benzyl alcohol

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