C-C coupling of carbonyls over metal oxides: The roles of acid and base sites in aldol addition reactions

SAVARA, ADITYA; CALAZA, FLORENCIA C.; MULLINS, DAVID R.; XU, YE; WU, ZILI; OVERBURY, STEVEN H.

Philadelphia

Conferencia; 244th ACS National Meeting; 2012

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Conversion of sugars, HMF, and bio-oils to produce larger alkanes and commodity chemicals requires selective C-C coupling reactions. One of the primary reactions for C-C coupling is aldol addition, in which two carbonyl compounds react to form a larger molecule. During aldol addition, an enol/enolate intermediate is formed, and the reaction can be either ?acid catalyzed? (keto-enol) or ?base catalyzed? (keto-keto). Some metal oxides can catalyze aldol addition, though our understanding of the atomic level interactions is still primitive. Several ?bifunctional? catalysts, which contain both acid and base sites, have been found to exhibit enhanced activity and/or selectivity towards aldol addition, but rational design of superior bifunctional catalysts is still not yet possible. In this talk, we present our newest insights towards rational design of aldol addition catalysts, and present recent results obtained on oxidized and reduced CeO2(111) and CeO2(100) as well as CeO2 nanoshapes.