Support effects in the gold-catalyzed selective aerobic oxidation of bulky alkenes

摘要

Introduction Organic oxygenated molecules are widely used as chemical intermediates for the synthesis of polymers and many other useful products. Nevertheless the synthesis of this kind of precursor generally needs a stoichiometric amount of organic or inorganic oxidant, which consequently is a 'black' step in our 'green' chemistry world. Such reactants could be replaced by cleaner and safer oxidants, such as molecular oxygen from the air, which most certainly is the best choice in terms of wide availability, easy accessibility, zero cost and atom efficiency. However, it has specific ways of activations. We have evidenced the ability of gold nanoparticles to catalyze the mild epoxidation of stilbene in liquid phase in air at atmospheric pressure [1]. Here, we will show how the support affects both reaction rates and selectivities, and how high efficiency, i.e. high selectivity at high conversion, can be achieved.