Solvent on Aerobic Oxidation

Also in the case of npAu/Ti02, preparation of a series of samples differing in the average gold particle size has allowed observation of a clear dependence of the initial reaction rate on the gold particle size, these results being in line with those reported by Haruta in the case of CO oxidation [69, 113-115]. 

Aerobic oxidation of simple volatile aliphatic alcohols, including ethanol [116], can be carried out conveniently in the gas or vapor phase. Gold nanoparticles (1%) supported on silica have been found to be a convenient catalyst [117]. Volatile primary and secondary aliphatic alcohols can be oxidized to their carbonyl compounds in the gas phase using air at atmospheric pressure in a fk-bed tubular reactor (Table 12.5) [117]. 

Although gas phase oxidations can be important in the case of simple alcohols on the large scale, the most widely used oxidation processes for alcohols work in the liquid phase. The reasons for this are the low vapor pressure of alcohols due to the strong intermolecular interactions by hydrogen bonding and the fact that complex multifunctional molecules can undergo, at high temperatures, undesirable thermal reactions. There are several Uquid phase oxidation procedures, the 

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