Angewandte
Chemie
Table 1: Structural and catalytic properties of Pd/meso-Al2O3.
kilogram scale, that they exhibit
excellent longevity and recyclabil-
ity, and that maximum activity is
attained concomitant with vast
reductions in precious-metal con-
tent. Highly dispersed PdII has been
postulated as the active species in
Wacker-type partial oxidation in
doped MoVNbOx catalysts.[20]
Catalyst
[wt%]
Particle size[a] Total PdII
[nm]
Surface PdII TON[d]
[%][c]
Yield
Selectivity
[%][f]
ꢀ1 [e]
[%][b]
[mmolhꢀ1 gcat.
]
0.03
0.06
1.03
2.37
4.70
0.13
0.8
1.3
2.0
4.4
85
59
43.4
23.6
17.8
76.6
57.2
44.1
22.2
10.2
1305 (822) 3.1 (1.9)
1908 (678) 5.1 (1.8)
163 (50) 29.9 (9.0)
55 (18) 24.8 (8.2)
36 (16) 17.1 (7.2)
91 (92)
88 (92)
91 (91)
93 (90)
94 (89)
[a] Average fromEXAFS 1st shell CN, X-ray line-broadening, and TEM. [b] Fromfitted XANES Pd K-edge
spectra. [c] From fitted Pd 3d XP spectra. [d] Turnover number based on crotyl alcohol turnover per mole
Pd after 1 h; cinnamyl alcohol values are given in parentheses. [e] Cinnamyl alcohol values are given in
parentheses. [f] Selectivity for aldehyde; cinnamyl alcohol values are given in parentheses.
In conclusion, we have synthe-
sized new mesoporous catalysts that
contain
atomically
dispersed
PdII centers. These materials show
exceptional catalytic performance
It is interesting to note the nonlinear dependence of TOF
on the total PdII concentration, which reflects the structural
evolution of supported palladium. We have previously shown
that metallic Pd (dominant at high loadings) exhibits poor
activity towards allylic alcohol selox.[11b] The slow initial rise
in TOF in Figure 3 over both alumina supports is associated
with the transition from large metal to small oxidic clusters
that expose moderately active surface PdOx. To confirm that
in the aerobic selox of allylic alcohols under mild conditions.
The dramatic dependence of cinnamaldehyde production on
electron-deficient palladium highlights the parallel between
homogeneous and heterogeneous alcohol selox chemistry and
the importance of isolated PdII sites in the catalytic cycle—a
discovery that opens new avenues for tailored selox catalysts.
the dramatic rate enhancement in the ultradilute regime for Experimental Section
Alcohol oxidation was performed on a Radleys carousel on a 10-mL
the Pd/meso-Al2O3 catalyst is attributable to the genesis of
isolated PdII centers, apparent activation energies were
measured for different loadings. These measurements
indeed reveal two distinct regimes associated with the switch-
over at approximately 0.06 wt% palladium as given in
Equation (1):
scale at 608C. Individual reactors were charged with benzyl, cinnamyl,
or crotyl alcohol (0.84 mmol, Aldrich, 99%) in toluene (10 mL) with
mesitylene as an internal standard. Reactions were performed on air
with catalyst (50 mg) and analyzed by GC using a DB5 capillary
column. Cinnamaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, and benzaldehyde were
the principal reaction products in all cases (87–94% selectivity).
There was no evidence for solvent oxidation or alcohol isomerization
or polymerization, reflecting our mild operating conditions. Reac-
tions were run for up to 24 h with initial rates determined from the
linear portion of the reaction profile. Catalyst selectivity and mass
balances (closure was greater than 98%) were determined using
reactant and product response factors with quoted conversions and
selectivities given to Æ 2and Æ 3%, respectively. All catalyst samples
could be recycled by simple filtration, washing with toluene, and air
drying without significant loss of activity over three consecutive runs
(TOFs remaining within 10% of initial values). Exemplary kinetic
profiles are shown in the Supporting Information.
surface PdIIOx phase !atomically dispersed PdII species
ð1Þ
DEact ꢁ 45 Æ 5 kJ molꢀ1 DEact ꢁ 10 Æ 5 kJ molꢀ1
With TOF = 4400 hꢀ1, our 0.03 wt% Pd/meso-Al2O3 cata-
lyst is the most active ever reported for heterogeneous
cinnamyl alcohol oxidation. This result compares favorably
with the best literature values of 538 hꢀ1 over Au/CeO2[3c] (at
1208C) and 27 hꢀ1 over Ru/Al2O3.[6b] The performance in
crotyl alcohol oxidation is no less exceptional, with TOF =
7080 hꢀ1 achievable at 0.21 atmospheres O2 and 608C, second
only to a recently reported AuPd/TiO2 catalyst that attained
12600 hꢀ1, albeit under 5 atm O2 and at 1608C.[5] In contrast,
the best literature report for crotyl alcohol selox under
comparable reaction conditions, over Ru/Faujisite, achieved a
TOF of only 3 hꢀ1.[19] For both alcohols, aldehyde selectivities
with our system were better than 91% (Table 1). In absolute
terms, redistributing palladium from large metal clusters
(4.7 wt%) to PdII species decorating the mesoporous alumina
(0.03 wt%) results in a 30-fold increase in the activity per
Pd atom. We also observed an excellent high TOF of 4096 hꢀ1
for benzyl alcohol oxidation, which was more than 99%
selective for benzaldehyde, thus indicating the applicability of
the catalyst beyond allylic systems.
Received: June 11, 2007
Revised: August 30, 2007
Published online: October 5, 2007
Keywords: heterogeneous catalysis · mesoporous materials ·
.
oxidation · palladium· X-ray absorption spectroscopy
[2] a) R. A. Sheldon, Pure Appl. Chem. 2000, 72, 1233 – 1246;
b) R. A. Sheldon, I. W. C. E. Arends, G.-J. ten Brink, A. Dijks-
[3] a) G. J. Hutchings, S. Carrettin, P. Landon, J. K. Edwards, D.
223 – 230; b) A. Abad, P. Concepción, A. Corma, H. García,
Operando EXAFS measurements confirm that these PdII
centers remain unchanged during the course of reaction over
periods of days (unlike other supported Pd systems, for which
reduction and sintering occur in situ[7a,9a,11a]) and are therefore
unequivocally the active catalytic species. It is important to
note that these catalysts are simple to synthesize on a
´
[4] M. D. Hughes, Y.-J. Xu1, P. Jenkins, P. McMorn, P. Landon, D. I.
Enache, A. F. Carley, G. A. Attard, G. J. Hutchings, F. King,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 8593 –8596
ꢀ 2007 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
8595
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