Ethanol Oxidation in Water Catalyzed by Gold Nanoparticles Supported on NiO Doped with Cu

Ethanol oxidation in water by molecular oxygen on supported gold nanoparticles (NPs) has been investigated at a temperature as low as 120 °C. Among various base metal oxide supports, NiO provided the highest conversion of ethanol and good selectivity to acetic acid. Furthermore Cu doping to the NiO support to enhance the semiconductivity resulted in an improvement in the selectivity to acetic acid without the depression of the conversion of ethanol. An increase in the specific surface area of the NiO support by Cu doping enabled the deposition of smaller gold NPs and, accordingly, the improvement of the catalytic activity.