New gold catalysts for liquid phase oxidation

A pre-requisite for good catalytic activity with supported gold is that the metal is present as nanoparticles, but no suitable method for depositing gold on carbon as nanoparticles has previously been reported. The deposition precipitation method which has been used successfully for catalyst preparation with other supports, produces large aggregates with carbon. It is now shown, however, that pre-reduced gold sol is a satisfactory method for preparing gold on carbon catalysts as long as an appropriate choice of sol is made. In this paper the activity of gold on carbon catalysts prepared in a number of different ways is compared in a standardized liquid phase organic oxidation reaction. The activity for Au/C catalysts prepared by the sol method can show a two-fold increase compared with a similar catalyst prepared by deposition precipitation.