Au–Pd nanoalloys supported on Mg–Al mixed metal oxides as a multifunctional catalyst for solvent-free oxidation of benzyl alcohol

Au–Pd nanoalloys supported on Mg–Al mixed metal oxides prepared using sol-immobilisation are found to be highly efficient and reusable catalysts for the solvent-free oxidation of benzyl alcohol using molecular oxygen under low pressure. When using this support alloying Pd with Au resulted in an increase in both activity and selectivity to benzaldehyde and moreover an improved resistance to catalyst deactivation compared with the monometallic Pd and Au catalysts. The turnover number for the Au/Pd 1 : 1 molar ratio catalyst achieved 13 000 after 240 min and the selectivity to benzaldehyde was maintained at 93%; this high catalytic activity can be retained in full after three successive uses. The ensemble and electronic effect of Au–Pd nanoalloys were studied by IR spectroscopy using CO chemisorption, XPS and HRTEM. Moreover, the bifunctional nature of the acid–base MgAl-MMO support was found to be important as the acid sites are considered to be responsible for the improvement of catalytic activity; while, the basic sites gave rise to high selectivity. A possible mechanism with Au–Pd nanoparticles as the active sites has been proposed, illustrating that the oxidation of benzyl alcohol can proceed through the cooperation between the Au–Pd nanoalloys and the base/acid sites on the surface of the support.