The industrial production of cyclohexanone from cyclohexanol would benefit from a selective oxidation catalyst. Herein, Cu doping of MgCr₂O₄ supports for gold nanoparticles active in gas-phase oxidation of cyclohexanol was investigated. Mg_1-xCu_xCr₂O₄ exhibited spinel structures (x ≤ 0.25: MgCr₂O₄; x = 1: CuCr₂O₄) onto which 3–4 nm gold nanoparticles could be dispersed. Cu doping led to higher activity. During reaction, surface Cu²⁺ was reduced to Cu⁰, resulting in AuCu alloy formation. At low temperature, low-Cu-content catalysts (x ≤ 0.1) showed higher activity than high-Cu-content catalysts, likely because the AuCu alloy with highly diluted Cu was more active for the dehydrogenation step of cyclohexanol. However, Au/Mg_0.99Cu_0.01Cr₂O₄ and Au/Mg_0.9Cu_0.1Cr₂O₄ showed lower cyclohexanol conversion at high temperature than samples with high Cu content, because O₂ activation involving Cu becomes rate-limiting. Stable cyclohexanol conversion and cyclohexanone selectivity were 99.1% and 90.2% (space-time yield of 266 g_Ketone g_Au⁻¹ h⁻¹) for Au/Mg_0.25Cu_0.75Cr₂O₄ at 300 °C.

由环己醇工业生产环己酮将受益于选择性氧化催化剂。在此，研究了在环己醇的气相氧化中具有活性的金纳米颗粒的MgCr ₂ O ₄载体的Cu掺杂。毫克_1-x的Cu _X的Cr ₂ ö ₄展出尖晶石结构（X  ：≤0.25 MgCr ₂ ö ₄ ; X：铜铬= 1 ₂ ö ₄在其上3-4纳米的金纳米颗粒可分散）。铜掺杂导致更高的活性。反应期间，表面Cu ²⁺还原为Cu ⁰，从而生成Au铜合金的形成。在低温，低Cu含量催化剂（X  ≤0.1）显示出更高的活性比Cu高含量的催化剂，有可能是因为在Au Cu合金具有高度稀释的Cu是用于环己醇脱氢步骤更加活跃。但是，Au / Mg _0.99 Cu _0.01 Cr ₂ O ₄和Au / Mg _0.9 Cu _0.1 Cr ₂ O ₄在高温下的环己醇转化率比高Cu含量的样品低，这是因为涉及Cu的O ₂活化成为速率限制。稳定的环己醇转化率和环己酮选择性分别为99.1％和90.2％（时空产率266 gAu / Mg _0.25 Cu _0.75 Cr ₂ O _4的酮 g _Au ^-1  h ^-1）在300°C下。