Catalysis Today

Volume 57, Issues 1–2, 31 March 2000, Pages 127-141
Catalysis Today

Selective oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes on metal catalysts

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0920-5861(99)00315-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Oxidation of aldehydes, alcohols or carbohydrate derivatives can be performed with air in aqueous media, in the presence of palladium and platinum catalysts under mild conditions (293–353 K and atmospheric pressure). These reactions provide valuable products and intermediates for fine chemistry. They have been known for a long time, but much effort in the last 20 years has focused on this approach, because these catalytic reactions are environmentally friendly and could replace stoichiometric oxidations with mineral oxidizing agents. An oxidative dehydrogenation mechanism on the reduced metal surface has been generally accepted. During this process, a strong deactivation of the catalysts is often reported, which is a cause of serious concern for process development. Several causes of deactivation have been put forward: oxidation of metal, blocking of active sites by strong adsorption of side-products, metal leaching and growth of platinum crystallites. The addition of certain p-electron metal promoters (e.g. Bi, Pb) has been shown to play a useful dual role in reducing catalysts deactivation and in changing the selectivity of reactions. The performances of the catalysts can also be improved by modification of the metallic surface with strongly adsorbing nitrogen-containing bases or phosphines.
A few illustrative examples will be given, which show that carbohydrates, aliphatic or aromatic alcohols, and polyols can be oxidized with high selectivities into valuable products.

Introduction

This review deals with the liquid phase oxidation, with molecular oxygen, of alcohols, aldehydes, and carbohydrates in the presence of platinum or palladium metal catalysts. These catalytic reactions proceed under mild conditions (293–353 K and atmospheric pressure) and are attractive for the preparation of fine chemicals. They operate via an oxidative dehydrogenation mechanism whereby the functional groups adsorb and dehydrogenate on the metal surface, followed by oxidation of the adsorbed hydrogen atoms. Early, Heyns et al. [1], [2], [106] proposed a reactivity scale for the oxidation of the different functional groups on Pt/C catalysts. This field of research matured over the last 20 years following a series of studies by groups at Eindhoven [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], Delft [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], Zürich [40], [41], [42], [43], [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49], [50], [51], [52], [53], [54], [55], [56], and Villeurbanne [57], [58], [59], [60], [61], [62], [63], [64], [65], [66], [67], while the oxidation of glycerol and derivatives was thoroughly studied by Kimura [68], [69], [70], [71], [72], [73]. A few review papers have been published on the liquid phase of alcohols and carbohydrates on metal catalysts [31], [48], [74], [75], [76].
In a first part, the general features of oxidation reactions on metal catalysts will be described. Then, recent studies reporting high selectivity achievements or process innovation will be examined in more details.

Access through your organization

Check access to the full text by signing in through your organization.

Access through your organization

Section snippets

Reaction mechanism

It was suggested, at a very early stage [1], [2], that liquid phase oxidation reactions of alcohols on metal surfaces proceed via a dehydrogenation mechanism followed by the oxidation of the adsorbed hydrogen atom with dissociatively adsorbed oxygen. This was supported by kinetic modeling of oxidation experiments [3], and by direct observation of hydrogen evolving from aldose aqueous solutions at basic pH (>11) in the presence of platinum or rhodium catalysts [25]. The dehydrogenation mechanism

Glucose to gluconic acid

Besson et al. [59] have studied the oxidation of concentrated glucose solution (1.7 mol l−1) on carbon-supported Pd–Bi/C catalysts of homogeneous size and composition (5 wt.% Pd, Bi/Pd = 0.1) prepared by deposition of bismuth on the surface of 1–2 nm palladium particles via a redox surface reaction [60]. The rate of glucose oxidation to gluconate was 20 times higher on Pd–Bi/C catalysts (Bi/Pds = 0.1) than on Pd/C. Table 1 gives the product distribution in four successive catalyst recycles. The

Concluding remarks

Liquid phase oxidation with air on supported metal catalysts gives high selectivities which in certain cases, such as glucose oxidation, can match or surpass those of enzymatic processes. In addition, metal-catalyzed oxidations give comparatively high productivities, e.g. up to 8 mol h−1 gPd−1 for glucose oxidation on Pd–Bi catalysts [39]. These processes offer the important advantages of high simplicity of operation (“one pot” reaction) and they are environmentally friendly since almost no

References (106)

  • H.G.J. de Wilt et al.

    Carbohydr. Res.

    (1971)
  • H.G.J. de Wilt et al.

    Carbohydr. Res.

    (1972)
  • H.G.J. de Wilt et al.

    Carbohydr. Res.

    (1972)
  • J.M.H. Dirkx et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1981)
  • J.M.H. Dirkx et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1981)
  • P.C.C. Smits et al.

    Carbohydr. Res.

    (1986)
  • P.C.C. Smits et al.

    Appl. Catal.

    (1987)
  • P.J.M. Dijkgraaf et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1988)
  • P.J.M. Dijkgraaf et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1988)
  • H.E.J. Hendriks et al.

    Carbohydr. Res.

    (1990)
  • Y. Schuurman et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1992)
  • Y. Schuurman et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1992)
  • J.A.A. van den Tillaart et al.

    Appl. Catal. A: General

    (1994)
  • H.E.J. Hendriks et al.

    J. Mol. Catal.

    (1994)
  • J.H. Vleeming et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1997)
  • G. de Wit et al.

    Carbohydr. Res.

    (1981)
  • H.E. van Dam et al.

    Appl. Catal.

    (1987)
  • H.E. van Dam et al.

    Appl. Catal.

    (1987)
  • H.E. van Dam et al.

    Appl. Catal.

    (1990)
  • F.R. Venema et al.

    J. Mol. Catal.

    (1992)
  • A. Abbadi et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1995)
  • A. Abbadi et al.

    J. Mol. Catal. A

    (1995)
  • A. Abbadi et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1996)
  • A. Abbadi et al.

    Appl. Catal. A: General

    (1997)
  • A.W. Heinen et al.

    Carbohydr. Res.

    (1997)
  • D.L. Verraest et al.

    Carbohydr. Res.

    (1998)
  • T. Mallat et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1991)
  • T. Mallat et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1991)
  • T. Mallat et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1992)
  • C. Brönnimann et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1994)
  • T. Mallat et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1993)
  • T. Mallat et al.

    Catal. Today

    (1994)
  • T. Mallat et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1995)
  • T. Mallat et al.

    Catal. Today

    (1995)
  • C. Brönnimann et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1996)
  • T. Mallat et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1997)
  • T. Mallat et al.

    J. Mol. Catal. A: Chemical

    (1997)
  • P. Gallezot et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1992)
  • M. Besson et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1995)
  • R. Garcia et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1995)
  • H. Kimura et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1993)
  • H. Kimura et al.

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1993)
  • H. Kimura

    Appl. Catal. A

    (1993)
  • P. Gallezot

    Catal. Today

    (1997)
  • T. Mallat et al.

    Appl. Surf. Sci.

    (1991)
  • P. Verdeguer et al.

    J. Mol. Catal.

    (1993)
  • H. Bönnemann et al.

    Inorg. Chim. Acta

    (1998)
  • L. Prati et al.

    J. Catal.

    (1998)
  • K. Heyns et al.

    Angew. Chem.

    (1957)
  • K. Heyns et al.

    Fortschr. Chem. Forsch.

    (1969)
    • View full text
    Copyright © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.