Oxidation of glycerol using gold-palladium alloy-supported nanocrystals.
The use of bio-renewable resources for the generation of materials and chemicals continues to attract significant research attention. Glycerol, a by-product from biodiesel manufacture, is a highly functionalised renewable raw material, and in this paper the oxidation of glycerol in the presence of base using supported gold, palladium and gold-palladium alloys is described and discussed. Two supports, TiO(2) and carbon, and two preparation methods, wet impregnation and sol-immobilisation, are compared and contrasted. For the monometallic catalysts prepared by impregnation similar activities are observed for Au and Pd, but the carbon-supported monometallic catalysts are more active than those on TiO(2). Glycerate is the major product and lesser amounts of tartronate, glycolate, oxalate and formate are observed, suggesting a sequential oxidation pathway. Combining the gold and palladium as supported alloy nanocrystals leads to a significant enhancement in catalyst activity and the TiO(2)-supported catalysts are significantly more active for the impregnated catalysts. The use of a sol-immobilisation preparation method as compared to impregnation leads to the highest activity alloy catalysts and the origins of these activity trends are discussed.
Dimitratos
Nikolaos
N
Cardiff University, Park Place, UK.
Lopez-Sanchez
Jose Antonio
JA
Anthonykutty
Jinto Manjaly
JM
Brett
Gemma
G
Carley
Albert F
AF
Tiruvalam
Ram Chandra
RC
Herzing
Andrew A
AA
Kiely
Christopher J
CJ
Knight
David W
DW
Hutchings
Graham J
GJ
D000497:Alloys / Q000737:chemistry*; D002384:Catalysis; D005990:Glycerol / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010165:Palladium / Q000737:chemistry*
D000497:Alloys; D010165:Palladium; D006046:Gold; D005990:Glycerol