Investigations of supported Au-Pd nanoparticles on synthesized CeO2 with different morphologies and application in solvent-free benzyl alcohol oxidation

Au-Pd bimetallic nanoparticles immobilized on series of CeO 2 supports with different morphologies, e.g. , rod, cube, and polyhedrons were prepared through the deposition-precipitation method with a consequent investigation on their catalytic performances for benzyl alcohol oxidation in the absence of solvent. The experimental results exhibited that the morphology of CeO 2 has a markedly impact on the catalytic performance of Au-Pd/CeO 2 . In which Au-Pd supported on CeO 2 rod could achieve higher benzyl alcohol conversion than that supported on CeO 2 polyhedrons and CeO 2 cube, however, CeO 2 cube supported Au-Pd showed the highest selectivity towards the production of benzaldehyde. ICP-AES, XRD, Raman, N 2 -BET, TEM, HAADF-STEM, and XPS were conducted to characterize the catalysts. The results revealed that the excellent behavior of Au-Pd/CeO 2 -rod in benzyl alcohol oxidation was closely related with the smaller size of CeO 2 particle, the higher concentration of oxygen defects in support and the higher number of Ce 3+ and Pd 2+ species on the catalyst surface. The present study on the morphologies of CeO 2 support in solvent-free benzyl alcohol oxidation would offer a notable approach for the future catalyst design.