Highly efficient self-esterification of aliphatic alcohols using supported gold nanoparticles under mild conditions

Abstract

Long aliphatic esters were prepared by the one-step catalytic self-esterification of primary alcohols using molecular oxygen as a green oxidant and supported gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) as catalyst. This heterogeneous catalyst achieved high activity and selectivity in a wide range of less reactive straight-chain alcohols (C4-C12) at atmospheric pressure O2 and near ambient temperature (45°C). Under optimised conditions, the catalyst with Au loading of 3wt% achieved the highest catalytic activity and selectivity. The AuNP catalysts are efficient and readily recyclable. The finding of this study may inspire further studies on new efficient catalytic systems for a wide range of organic syntheses using supported AuNP catalysts.