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

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.