Silver catalysts for liquid-phase oxidation of alcohols in green chemistry: Challenges and outlook

Abstract

Selective oxidation of alcohols allow using them as a key resource for obtaining of aldehydes, ketones, esters and carboxylic acids, which are valuable intermediates and high value products for the fine chemical, pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. The high environmental impact of current technologies is driving the research of greener processes in the liquid phase. Most of this research is devoted to study catalytic systems based on platinum group metals and gold. However, despite their high levels of activity, these catalyst systems are quite expensive and suffer of deactivation and stability problems. Silver-containing catalysts may be their excellent alternative. They are the basis for a number of important industrial oxidation processes in the gas-phase. However, research on its use for liquid-phase processes is quite limited, especially for selective oxidation of alcohols.Therefore, this short review focuses on the systematization and analysis of the available literature data on the liquid phase oxidation of alcohols using silver-containing catalysts with the aim of identifying the problems and limitations of the state of the art and the prospects of further studies and practical implementation of such systems for the target processes.