The Role of Gold in Gold-Titania Epoxidation Catalysts

摘要

Catalysts consisting of gold nanoparticles on titania supports have received considerable attention over the past years as novel systems for the direct and selective epoxidation of propene.[1]-[3] A process to directly epoxidize propene is highly desirable as the currently available processes are not optimal. The chlorohydrin process is being phased out because of environmental concerns, and each of the hydroperoxide processes [styrene monomer/propylene oxide (SM/PO) and propylene oxide/tert-butanol, (PO/TBA)] produces a by-product (styrene and tert-butanol, respectively) in a fixed amount, thus making the production capacity less flexible.