Physicochemical and catalytic properties of nanosized Au/CeO2 catalysts for eco-friendly oxidation of benzyl alcohol

In this work, benzyl alcohol oxidation was investigated over Au/CeO2-homogeneous deposition–precipitation (ACH) and Au/CeO2-direct anionic-exchange (ACD) catalysts. Various characterization techniques were employed to study their physicochemical properties. TEM images revealed presence of 5.3 and 7.4 nm Au nanoparticles in ACH and ACD catalysts, respectively. Raman studies showed that only ACH sample exhibits oxygen deficiency (0.0574). Amongst, the ACH catalyst exhibited better catalytic performance owing to smaller gold nanoparticles and abundant oxygen vacancies. The alcohol conversion and product selectivity were strongly dependent on temperature and time-on-stream conditions. The catalytic activity decreased after repeated use due to aggregation of Au nanoparticles.