Mesoporous Silica Supported Au Nanoparticles with Controlled Size as Efficient Heterogeneous Catalyst for Aerobic Oxidation of Alcohols

A series of Au catalysts with different sizes were synthesized and employed on amine group functionalized ordered mesoporous silica solid supports as catalyst for the aerobic oxidation of various alcohols. The mesoporous silica of MCM-41 supported Au nanoparticles (Au-1) exhibited the smallest particle size at ~1.8 nm with superior catalytic activities owing to the confinement effect of the mesoporous channels. Au-1 catalyst is also very stable and reusable under aerobic condition. Therefore, this presented work would obviously provide us a platform for synthesizing more size-controlled metal catalysts to improve the catalytic performances.