Ordered Mesoporous Carbon-supported Morphologically-controlled Nano-Gold: Role of Support as well as the Shape and Size of Gold Nanoparticles on the Selective Oxidation of Glycerol

Glyceric acid is one of the important intermediates of glycerol oxidation. However, it is extremely difficult to achieve high glyceric acid selectively as the reaction follows a complex pathway with the formation of a variety of undesired products. In this context, periodic mesoporous carbon-supported gold catalysts show promise for selective formation of the targeted product. Therefore, in this investigation, an effort has made to study the effect of particle size and shape of a series of carbon supported with varied sized/shaped gold catalysts on the liquid-phase oxidation of glycerol. Further, the role played by the surface of gold-nanoparticles has prompted us to investigate in detail the isotropic (nanocube/nanosphere) and anisotropic (nanoslabs/nanorods) gold supported onto both activated/amorphous carbon (Au/AC) and ordered mesoporous carbon (Au/CMK-3) towards glycerol oxidation. It was observed that the CMK-3 supported gold nanocube exhibited the highest yield towards glyceric acid with an excellent stability in terms of recyclability/reusability.