Mg-Al Mixed Oxides Supported Bimetallic Au-Pd Nanoparticles with Superior Catalytic Properties in Aerobic Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol and Glycerol

Nano-sized Au and Pd catalysts are favorable for oxidations with molecular oxygen, and the preparation of this kind of nanoparticles with high catalytic activities is strongly desirable. We report a successful synthesis of bimetallic Au-Pd nanoparticles with rich edge and corner sites on unique support of Mg-Al mixed oxides (Au-Pd/MAO), which are favorable for producing metal nanoparticles with high degree of coordinative unsaturation of metal atoms. The systematic microscopic characterizations confirm the bimetallic Au-Pd nanoparticles are present as Au-Pd alloy. The irregular shape of the bimetallic nanoparticles are directly observed in HRTEM images. As we expected, Au-Pd/MAO gives very excellent catalytic performances in the aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol and glycerol. For example, Au-Pd/MAO shows very high TOF of 91000 h-1 at 433 K with molecular oxygen at air pressure in solvent-free oxidation of benzyl alcohol; this catalyst also shows relatively high selectivity for tartronic acid (TARAC, 36.6%) at high conversion (98.5%) in aerobic oxidation of glycerol. The superior catalytic properties of Au-Pd/MAO would be potentially important for production of fine chemicals.