Application of mobilized gold nanoparticles as sole catalyst for the oxidation of secondary alcohols into ketones

Oxidation of alcohols into corresponding ketones is efficiently catalyzed by heterogeneous gold nanoparticles. Use of H2O2 instead of O-2 (g) is the main feature of our methodology since maintaining the required pressure of O-2 (g) at elevated temperature is not easy. The reaction does not require any co-catalyst. After completion of the reaction, the catalyst could be recovered by centrifugation and reused several times with only a slight decrease in activity. Thus our present protocol, which is comprised of green reagent, solvent and catalyst, is completely clean. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.