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Enhanced catalytic performance for selective oxidation of propene with O2 over bimetallic Au–Cu/SiO2 catalysts

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Abstract

Au–Cu bimetallic nanoparticles with uniform size, shape, and compositions were synthesized by wet chemistry method, and then the Au–Cu/SiO2 catalyst supported on SiO2 was prepared. Meanwhile, their catalytic activity for the selective oxidation of propene to acrolein using O2 as an oxidant was evaluated. The bimetallic catalyst shows a significantly enhanced catalytic performance comparing with Au and Cu monometallic catalysts. Characterization of the materials and kinetic study was conducted to explore the cooperating mechanism of Au and Cu for improving the catalytic activity of the bimetallic catalyst. Cu component can segregate to the alloy surface and the Au–Cu alloy transferred to Au–CuO core/shell structure after annealing during the preparation process. Based on the Mars–van Krevelen mechanism for the selective oxidation of propene over the prepared catalysts, the coexistence of CuO can promote the adsorption and activation of O2. Meanwhile, the electrons transfer from Au to Cu in the catalyst can facilitate the adsorptions of both oxygen on CuO sites and propene on Au sites. The combined effects of the above two aspects result in the high catalytic activity of the Au–Cu/SiO2 catalyst for selective oxidation of propene to acrolein, compared to the Au/SiO2 and CuO/SiO2 catalysts.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFC0204300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21922602 and 21577034), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 222201717003).

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  1. Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Research Institute of Industrial Catalysis, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Xin Guo, Xue-Quan Sun, Yun Guo, Yang-Long Guo, Yun-Song Wang, Li Wang & Wang-Cheng Zhan

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  1. Xin Guo
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  3. Yun Guo
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Correspondence to Wang-Cheng Zhan.

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Guo, X., Sun, XQ., Guo, Y. et al. Enhanced catalytic performance for selective oxidation of propene with O2 over bimetallic Au–Cu/SiO2 catalysts. Rare Met. 40, 1056–1066 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-020-01632-w

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