skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Selective Aerobic Oxidation of Alcohols over Atomically-Dispersed Non-Precious Metal Catalysts

Journal Article · · ChemSusChem
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [2];  [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
  2. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Center for Microengineered Materials
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Science

Catalytic oxidation of alcohols often requires the presence of expensive transition metals. We show that earth-abundant Fe atoms dispersed throughout a nitrogen-containing carbon matrix catalyze the oxidation of benzyl alcohol and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural by O2 in the aqueous phase. Furthermore, the activity of the catalyst can be regenerated by a mild treatment in H2. An observed kinetic isotope effect indicates that β-H elimination from the alcohol is the kinetically relevant step in the mechanism, which can be accelerated by substituting Fe with Cu. Dispersed Cr, Co, and Ni also convert alcohols, demonstrating the general utility of metal–nitrogen–carbon materials for alcohol oxidation catalysis. Oxidation of aliphatic alcohols is substantially slower than that of aromatic alcohols, but adding 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy as a co-catalyst with Fe can significantly improve the reaction rate.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1341579
Journal Information:
ChemSusChem, Vol. 10, Issue 2; ISSN 1864-5631
Publisher:
ChemPubSoc EuropeCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 58 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (52)

Recent Advances in Immobilized Metal Catalysts for Environmentally Benign Oxidation of Alcohols journal February 2008
Addressing the terawatt challenge: scalability in the supply of chemical elements for renewable energy journal January 2012
Aerobic oxidation catalysis with stable radicals journal January 2014
Tuning Catalytic Activity between Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysis: Improved Activity and Selectivity of Free Nano-Fe2O3 in Selective Oxidations journal November 2007
Layered-Carbon-Stabilized Iron Oxide Nanostructures as Oxidation Catalysts journal August 2011
A Graphene Composite Material with Single Cobalt Active Sites: A Highly Efficient Counter Electrode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells journal April 2016
Nano-structured non-platinum catalysts for automotive fuel cell application journal September 2015
Unravelling the Structure of Electrocatalytically Active Fe-N Complexes in Carbon for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal August 2014
Critical role of intercalated water for electrocatalytically active nitrogen-doped graphitic systems journal March 2016
Mesoporous Metal–Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Electrocatalysts for Highly Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal October 2013
On the Role of Metals in Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction journal July 2015
Bio-inspired design of electrocatalysts for oxalate oxidation: a combined experimental and computational study of Mn–N–C catalysts journal January 2015
Rational design of carbon support to prepare ultrafine iron oxide catalysts for air oxidation of alcohols journal January 2015
Selective oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes over supported metal nanoparticles journal January 2013
High-Performance Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Derived from Polyaniline, Iron, and Cobalt journal April 2011
Stabilisierung von Eisenoxid-Nanostrukturen mit mehrlagigem Kohlenstoff und Einsatz als Oxidationskatalysator journal August 2011
Chemistry of Multitudinous Active Sites for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Transition Metal–Nitrogen–Carbon Electrocatalysts journal November 2015
Porphyrin based porous organic polymer as bi-functional catalyst for selective oxidation and Knoevenagel condensation reactions journal May 2013
On the deactivation of supported platinum catalysts for selective oxidation of alcohols journal March 2014
A Graphene Composite Material with Single Cobalt Active Sites: A Highly Efficient Counter Electrode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells journal April 2016
Stable and catalytically active iron porphyrin-based porous organic polymer: Activity as both a redox and Lewis acid catalyst journal July 2015
Transition metal based catalysts in the aerobic oxidation of alcohols journal January 2012
Green synthesis of nitriles using non-noble metal oxides-based nanocatalysts journal July 2014
Nanoscale Fe2O3-Based Catalysts for Selective Hydrogenation of Nitroarenes to Anilines journal November 2013
Oxidation of Alcohols with Molecular Oxygen on Solid Catalysts journal June 2004
Recent Advances in Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal February 2016
Heterogeneous catalytic properties of unprecedented μ-O-[FeTCPP] 2 dimers (H 2 TCPP = meso-tetra(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin): an unusual superhyperfine EPR structure journal January 2015
Efficient aerobic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-diformylfuran on supported Ru catalysts journal May 2013
Immobilized metalloporphyrins on 3-aminopropyl-functionalized silica support as heterogeneous catalysts for selective oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols journal January 2012
Perspectives on the kinetics of diol oxidation over supported platinum catalysts in aqueous solution journal December 2013
A single iron site confined in a graphene matrix for the catalytic oxidation of benzene at room temperature journal December 2015
Highly dispersed iron oxides on mesoporous carbon for selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol with molecular oxygen journal January 2014
Synthesis, characterization and catalytic performance of a Fe polyoxometalate/silica composite in the oxidation of alcohols with hydrogen peroxide journal October 2014
Selective Oxidation of Alcohols to Esters Using Heterogeneous Co 3 O 4 –N@C Catalysts under Mild Conditions journal July 2013
Tuning Catalytic Activity between Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysis: Improved Activity and Selectivity of Free Nano-Fe2O3 in Selective Oxidations journal November 2007
Visible-Light-Driven Oxidation of Primary C–H Bonds over CdS with Dual Co-catalysts Graphene and TiO2 journal November 2013
Podlike N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes Encapsulating FeNi Alloy Nanoparticles: High-Performance Counter Electrode Materials for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells journal May 2014
Unravelling the Structure of Electrocatalytically Active Fe-N Complexes in Carbon for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction journal August 2014
A noble metal-free proton-exchange membrane fuel cell based on bio-inspired molecular catalysts journal January 2015
Mechanism of reductive oxygen adsorption on active carbons with various surface chemistry journal January 2004
Cooperative electrocatalytic alcohol oxidation with electron-proton-transfer mediators journal June 2016
Templated bi-metallic non-PGM catalysts for oxygen reduction journal October 2012
Podlike N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes Encapsulating FeNi Alloy Nanoparticles: High-Performance Counter Electrode Materials for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells journal May 2014
Iron-Based Catalysts with Improved Oxygen Reduction Activity in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells journal April 2009
Single-atom dispersed Co–N–C catalyst: structure identification and performance for hydrogenative coupling of nitroarenes journal January 2016
Über die Rolle von Metallen in Elektrokatalysatoren auf Basis von stickstoffdotiertem Kohlenstoff für die Sauerstoffreduktion journal July 2015
Co–N–C Catalyst for C–C Coupling Reactions: On the Catalytic Performance and Active Sites journal October 2015
Hydrocarbon oxidation by homogeneous and heterogeneous non-heme iron (III) catalysts with H2O2 journal November 2010
Hydrogenation using iron oxide–based nanocatalysts for the synthesis of amines journal March 2015
Mechanism of Copper(I)/TEMPO-Catalyzed Aerobic Alcohol Oxidation journal January 2013
Oxidation of Alcohols with Molecular Oxygen on Solid Catalysts journal September 2004
Synthesis and Characterization of Iron–Nitrogen-Doped Graphene/Core–Shell Catalysts: Efficient Oxidative Dehydrogenation of N -Heterocycles journal August 2015

Cited By (17)

Die facettenreiche Reaktivität heterogener Einzelatom‐Katalysatoren journal November 2018
The Multifaceted Reactivity of Single-Atom Heterogeneous Catalysts journal October 2018
Mono-Atomic Fe Centers in Nitrogen/Carbon Monolayers for Liquid-Phase Selective Oxidation Reaction journal July 2018
Single Atom Catalysts on Carbon-Based Materials journal November 2018
Recent Advances in Iron Catalyzed Oxidation Reactions of Organic Compounds journal August 2017
Promoting effect of solvent on Cu/CoO catalyst for selective glycerol oxidation under alkaline conditions journal January 2018
Metal-free catalytic oxidation of benzylic alcohols for benzaldehyde journal January 2019
A robust iron catalyst for the selective hydrogenation of substituted (iso)quinolones journal January 2018
Single-atom catalysts and their applications in organic chemistry journal January 2018
A heterogeneous single Cu catalyst of Cu atoms confined in the spinel lattice of MgAl 2 O 4 with good catalytic activity and stability for NO reduction by CO journal January 2019
Oxidative cleavage of β-O-4 bonds in lignin model compounds with a single-atom Co catalyst journal January 2019
Photochemical oxidation of benzylic primary and secondary alcohols utilizing air as the oxidant journal January 2020
Synergistic catalysis on Fe–N x sites and Fe nanoparticles for efficient synthesis of quinolines and quinazolinones via oxidative coupling of amines and aldehydes journal January 2019
Single-atom catalyst: a rising star for green synthesis of fine chemicals journal August 2018
The Multifaceted Reactivity of Single-Atom Heterogeneous Catalysts text January 2018
Metal Catalysts for Heterogeneous Catalysis: From Single Atoms to Nanoclusters and Nanoparticles journal April 2018
Selective Catalytic Oxidation of Benzyl Alcohol to Benzaldehyde by Nitrates journal March 2020