Aerobic oxidation of benzyl alcohol over mesoporous Mn-doped ceria supported Au nanoparticle catalyst

Abstract In this decade intensive research was carried out to prepare mesoporous non-silicious oxide for various application. Development of mesoporous ceria based material has become most important because of its application in catalysis, solar cell and photovoltic cell. The selective aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols through an environment benign route to synthesize aldehydes is of utmost importance. The catalytic role of supported gold nanoparticles for aerobic oxidation reaction has been focused in the era of sustainable chemistry. The unique redox property of ceria is a fascination for developing Au–CeO 2 catalyst in many studies on aerobic oxidation reaction. In this work, we have prepared mesoporous manganese doped ceria to examine the change of physicochemical properties due to incorporation of managnese to the ceria lattice. Deposition of gold nanoparticles and Mn-doping on ceria enhanced the redox behaviour of ceria as well as the basic properties. A thorough characterization by BET S.A., XRD, Raman, HRTEM, STEM, H 2 -TPR, CO 2 -TPD, XPS, XAFS reveal the distortion of in the doped CeO 2 lattice is electronic in nature rather than structural distortion. The catalytic activity of the catalysts demonstrate the promotional role of gold nanoparticle in this study.