Enhanced Activity of Au/NiO Nanohybrids for the Reductive Amination of Benzyl Alcohol

Carine E Chan-Thaw; Lidia E Chinchilla; Felipe Juan Sanchez Trujillo; Nikolaos Dimitratos; Gianluigi A Botton; Laura Prati; Alberto Villa

doi:10.3390/ma10121435

Enhanced Activity of Au/NiO Nanohybrids for the Reductive Amination of Benzyl Alcohol

Materials (Basel). 2017 Dec 16;10(12):1435. doi: 10.3390/ma10121435.

Authors

Carine E Chan-Thaw¹, Lidia E Chinchilla², Felipe Juan Sanchez Trujillo³, Nikolaos Dimitratos⁴, Gianluigi A Botton⁵, Laura Prati⁶, Alberto Villa⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Università degli Studi di Milano via Golgi 19, 20133 Milan, Italy. Carine.Chanthaw@unimi.it.
² Canadian Centre of Electron Microscopy and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada. lidia.chinchilla@uca.es.
³ Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff CF103AT, UK. SanchezF@cardiff.ac.uk.
⁴ Cardiff Catalysis Institute, School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff CF103AT, UK. DimitratosN@cardiff.ac.uk.
⁵ Canadian Centre of Electron Microscopy and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada. gbotton@mcmaster.ca.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Università degli Studi di Milano via Golgi 19, 20133 Milan, Italy. Laura.Prati@unimi.it.
⁷ Department of Chemistry, Università degli Studi di Milano via Golgi 19, 20133 Milan, Italy. Alberto.Villa@unimi.it.

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles were prepared by sol immobilization (Au_SI) or deposition precipitation (Au_DP), then deposited on NiO and commercial TiO₂ (P25). The Au/NiO catalysts showed higher activity and yield to the secondary amine, compared to Au/TiO₂ catalysts, when tested for the reductive amination of benzyl alcohol with isopropylamine. We attribute this result to a synergistic effect between Au and NiO. Moreover, as a result of the protective effect of the polyvinyl alcohol used in the sol immobilization synthesis, the gold nanoparticles on NiO demonstrate an increased resistance to structural changes during the reaction. This effect results in enhanced catalytic efficiency in terms of activity, and better stability against deactivation.

Keywords: NiO nanohybrids; gold; reductive amination.