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Heterogeneously Catalyzed Oxidation Reactions Using ... - CHEC

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CHAPTER 2<br />

being oxidatively removed under aerobic conditions. Both effects limit the selectivity and the<br />

catalytic activity, respectively, and were not reported over Ag and Cu.<br />

2.3.1.2 Aerobic alcohol oxidation<br />

While with Ag/HT [86] also aerobic oxidation was performed very effectively (TOF 6000 h ‐1 for benzyl<br />

alcohol), similar experiments for the corresponding Cu catalysts are not reported. A reason might be<br />

that the usually metallic copper nanoparticles are oxidized and hence deactivated under elevated<br />

temperature aerobic conditions while silver is stable against deep oxidation. Hence, aerobic alcohol<br />

oxidation is reported only with oxidic copper species. An early example is the oxidation of 2‐propanol<br />

to acetone with Cu‐exchanged octahedral molecular sieves (Table 2‐1, entry 11) [84]. In Cu1.5Mn1.5O4<br />

spinel supported on Al2O3 a collaborative effect of Mn and Cu was found where Cu was assumed to<br />

activate oxygen [61]. TOFs obtained with this catalyst are quite low (entry 12). Cu was also used as a<br />

mixed oxide together with Mg as a support for Au [98] forming a highly active catalyst. The exact<br />

nature of the beneficial influence of Cu could not be identified and might be connected to its<br />

influence on surface basicity, redox activity or an influence on the net charge of Au particles (which<br />

were, however, assumed to be the primary active species). In another study, Y‐zeolite encorporated<br />

CuO particles were used at very high temperatures (200 °C) for the oxidation of e.g. 1‐phenylethanol<br />

[103] for which CuO and CuO/Y exhibited significantly different behavior: CuO afforded<br />

acetophenone (entry 13a), CuO/Y gave mainly 2,3‐diphenyl‐but‐2‐ene (entry 13b). The difference in<br />

selectivity was assigned to the interaction of lewis‐acid/ ‐base sites on the zeolite and CuO particles,<br />

respectively. Cu‐containing mixed oxides were further used with H2O2 (entry 14) [104] and TBHP<br />

(entry 15) [105] though this approach appears less attractive given the activities obtained already<br />

with molecular oxygen. Room temperature aerobic oxidation was described with Cu‐Al‐hydrotalcite<br />

which was co‐impregnated with rac‐BINOL as a ligand (entry 16) [106]. Due to the low temperatures<br />

long reaction times were required but aldehydes were obtained with excellent selectivity under neat<br />

conditions. Steric constraints afforded a high selectivity for primary alcohols. The catalyst was<br />

reusable so apparently leaching of copper and the required co‐impregnated ligand was low.<br />

Compared to gold catalysis, the literature on silver catalysts for the selective aerobic alcohol<br />

oxidation is scarce. This is astonishing since silver has long been used as an industrial methanol<br />

oxidation catalyst in gas phase reactions proving the principal feasibility of silver. In one of the first<br />

studies, polystyrene crosslinked Ag‐exchanged natural zeolite was successfully used under mild<br />

conditions for the oxidation of simple alcohols such as iso‐propanol and 2,3‐butandiol (Table 2‐1,<br />

entry 17). In the latter case, C‐C cleavage was observed as the main reaction pathway thus giving<br />

acetaldehyde [84]. The reactions were carried out under mild conditions (55 °C) in water. Various<br />

reports found unmodified metallic silver to be inactive for alcohol oxidation [69‐71]. Liotta et al.<br />

24

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