Highly selective copper nanoparticles for the hydrogenation of,-unsaturated aldehydes in liquid phase

VICTORIA GUTIERREZ; FABIANA NADOR; GABRIEL RADIVOY; MARÍA A. VOLPE

APPLIED CATALYSIS A-GENERAL

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2013 vol. 464- p. 109 - 115

0926-860X

Unsupported copper nanoparticles (CuNPs), 3?4 nm in size, are obtained from the reduction of the cor-responding metal chloride through an electron transfer from a lithium arenide. CuNPs are tested for theliquid phase hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde in batch conditions by using H2. High activity and selec-tivity to cinnamyl alcohol (87%, at high conversion) are reached. When CuNPs are supported on MCM-41and on high surface area CeO2, TEM and XRD characterization shows that the nanometric size of cop-per is retained. For the hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde or of cinnamaldehyde, CuNPs/MCM-41 andCuNPs/CeO2are less active and less selective than unsupported nanoparticles. However the selectivitylevels reached by these catalysts are higher than those obtained over noble metal (Au and Pt) based cata-lysts, tested under the same reaction conditions. The catalytic properties of supported and unsupportedCuNPs would be related to the nanometric size of copper