Aerobic oxidation of primary aliphatic alcohols over bismuth oxide supported platinum catalysts in water

Catalytic oxidation of non-activated aliphatic alcohols with molecular oxygen is rather challenging, especially in an aqueous medium in the absence of an additional base. Bismuth is usually used as a promoter of platinum-based catalysts. In this work, bismuth oxide was explored as a support, and Pt0 nanoparticles supported on bismuth oxide (Pt/Bi2O3) exhibited high activity for aerobic oxidation of n-butanol using water as a solvent in the absence of an additional base under optimized conditions. Besides n-butanol, liquid primary aliphatic alcohols with low solubility in water could also be smoothly oxidized into the corresponding carbonyl compounds with molecular oxygen. Pt/Bi2O3 reduced by H2 at about 200 °C showed the highest activity for aerobic oxidation of n-butanol. At this temperature, platinum oxide was reduced to Pt0 and bismuth oxide could be reduced partially which might change the surface property of bismuth oxide.