Green catalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol over Pt/ZnO in base-free aqueous medium at room temperature

The selective oxidation of alcohol using molecular oxygen as an oxidant and water as a green solvent is of great interest in green chemistry. In this work, we present a systematic study of a Pt/ZnO catalyst for the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol at room temperature under base-free aqueous conditions. Experimental observations and density functional theory calculations suggest that ZnO as a support can facilitate the adsorption of benzyl alcohol, which subsequently reacts with the activated oxygen species on the Pt catalyst, producing benzaldehyde. The resulting solid achieves a high conversion (94.1 +/- 5.1% in 10 h) of benzyl alcohol and nearly 100% selectivity to benzaldehyde with ambient air as the oxidant. In addition, by introducing a small amount of Bi (1.78 wt%) into Pt/ZnO, we can further enhance the activity by 350%. (C) 2018, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.