Activity of heterogeneous supported Cu and Ru catalysts in acceptor-less alcohol dehydrogenation

Abstract Acceptor-less alcohol dehydrogenation reaction allows the co-production of added-value carbonyl compounds and H2 from alcohols. Focusing on supported Ru and Cu catalysts, we evaluated the support effect on the dehydrogenation of 2-octanol and 1-octanol and identified the side products as resulting from aldolisation coupling. The most active and selective catalysts were then tested on the aliphatic vicinal-diol octan-1,2-diol and the highest conversion was reached using Cu/ZrO2 (60%) with a high selectivity (94%) towards 1-hydroxy-2-octanone.