Theoretical study of selective hydrogenolysis of methyl vinyl carbinol over Au-Ni bimetallic catalyst: toward constructing a working hypothesis for the role of dichloroethane solvent and perimeter sites

Abstract Au-Ni bimetallic nanoparticles catalyze the hydrogenolysis of the hydroxy group of benzylic alcohols by activating H2 with dichloroethane solvent. To propose a working hypothesis for their reaction mechanism, we performed theoretical calculations for the hydroxylation of methyl vinyl carbinol over the Au1Ni19 cluster. The results showed that there’re two reaction cycles, depending on the presence of HCl. Firstly, the solvent acted as a sacrificial reagent to produce the carbocation intermediate, while HCl was produced in other reaction. It was found that the presence of the exposed Au site played an important role for producing HCl and subsequent hydrogenolysis.