The Key Gold: Enhanced Platinum Catalysis for the Selective Hydrogenation of α,β-Unsaturated Ketone

Abstract

AuPt alloy nanoparticles (NPs) were facilely synthesized with oleylamine as the stabilizing ligand and characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer analysis, and so on. In addition, the AuPt alloys supported by the nano CeO2 exhibit high selectivity and efficiency in hydrogenation of benzylidene acetone under ambient temperature and pressure. By analyzing the catalytic performance over the NPs with different Au:Pt compositions, we found that the TONPt values (based on the number of Pt atoms) vary in the same trend with the change of conversion. Despite that gold itself shows no catalytic activity, the improved conversion and TONPt with the alloy catalysts clearly show the promotion effect of gold on the catalytic activity of the platinum. The inactive metal significantly improves the catalytic activity of active metal, which shows that the AuPt alloy exhibits an interesting synergistic effect.