Oxidation of Alcohols with Molecular Oxygen

Abstract

A review. In the oxidn. of benzyl alc. to benzaldehyde on Ag, Cu, and Co catalysts, the selectivities were attractive only at low conversion . Nevertheless, these studies uncovered some important details of the reaction mechanism and the nature of the active sites. It was proposed that, on supported Ag catalysts, the active sites were Ag+ species on the surface of metallic silver particles . The considerable enhancement in catalytic activity induced by calcination at high temp., the use of basic support, and the addn. of alkali metal promoters was correlated with the more facile redn. of bulk silver to Agγ. [on SciFinder(R)]