Catalysis Science & Technology
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Scheme 2 Suggested route for the oxidation of silanes to silanols
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presence of hydroxyl groups on the surface.43,44 Carbon-
supported Au catalysts, which were inactive for the vapor-phase
CO oxidation up to 373 K, showed excellent CO oxidation
rates in the aqueous phase at 300 K.44 Moreover, a 50-fold
increase in rate was observed on going from acidic to basic pH,
though Au particles used in aqueous-phase studies were larger
than 4 nm.45 All these facts show that the adsorbed species
play a major role in enhancing the activity even for larger par-
ticles. A similar effect may be operating in our case, making
larger particles as active as smaller ones.
Conclusions
Water oxidation of silanes to silanols is efficiently catalysed
by “large” gold nanoparticles (6–18 nm in diameter). This cata-
lytic oxidation has several advantages, namely using water as a
clean oxidant, high activity and selectivity for silanols. More-
over, it works well with a number of silanes with different
types of substituents. Combining this reaction with ultrafiltra-
tion membrane reactor technology solves the problem of diffi-
cult separation of nanoparticles from the reaction mixture,
and opens opportunities for bona fide applications.
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Acknowledgements
V.G. thanks the European Commission for a Marie Curie
International Exchange Fellowship. We thank A. Duek for
preparing the AuNP suspensions, and Dr. E. Garnett and
M. de Goede (FOM Institute AMOLF) for help with the STEM
experiments.
Notes and references
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