Abstract
The experimentally proposed reaction mechanism for the aerobic alcohol oxidation by supported ruthenium hydroxide catalysts (Ru(OH)x/support, support = TiO2 or Al2O3) is theoretically investigated by means of ab initio quantum chemistry calculations with model catalysts “Ru(OH)3(OH2)3” and “RuCl3(OH2)3” for Ru(OH)x/support and RuClx/support, respectively. The experimentally proposed alcoholate formation and β-hydride elimination steps can be verified. In the case of 2-butanol (as a model substrate), the calculated activation energy for the alcoholate formation step with Ru(OH)3(OH2)3 (27.7 kJ mol−1) is much smaller than that with RuCl3(OH2)3 (123.2 kJ mol−1), showing that the alcoholate formation with Ru(OH)x/support much more easily proceeds than that with RuClx/support. The Ru(OH)x/support catalysts possess both Lewis acid (Ru center) and Bronsted base (OH− species) sites on the same metal site. Therefore, the alcoholate formation step can be promoted by the “concerted activation” of an alcohol by the L...
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