Facile preparation of supported noble metal nanoparticle catalysts with the aid of templating surfactants in mesostructured materials

Quaternary ammonium surfactants were generally used as templates in the synthesis of mesoporous materials, and the surfactants were removed by extraction or calcination to give the space of mesopores. Here with the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide templated mesostructured materials, we directly utilized the surfactants as capturing and stabilizing agents to prepare supported noble metal nanoparticle catalysts. The Pd-supported catalysts exhibited high and stable activity in hydrogenation of allyl alcohol (with a remarkably high turnover frequency of 5676 h(-1)) and aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol. During the recycle use of the catalyst, though surfactants were gradually leached into the reaction medium, the amount of Pd in the catalyst remained constant within experimental error. It is facile and energy-saving to use directly the as-synthesized mesostructured materials as support for noble metal nanoparticles without further calcination or further modification treatment. This method is versatile to prepare other noble metal (such as Au and Pt) supported catalysts by altering the metal precursors. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.