BETHLEHEM, Pa., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Research by materials scientists at Lehigh University and catalyst chemists at Britain's Cardiff University might lead to cleaner production methods.
The materials scientists, headed by Christopher Kiely, determined the structure of a type of gold-palladium nanoparticle that's the active component of an environmentally friendly catalyst that promotes oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes.
The oxidation of aromatic primary alcohols is of particular importance in the manufacture of perfumes and flavorings.
Such oxidation reactions have been performed using expensive reagents that toxicity issues. The new catalyst -- gold-palladium nanoparticles dispersed on a titanium oxide support -- allows the reaction to occur using oxygen under mild solvent-free conditions.
The system was developed by a group headed by Professor Graham Hutchings at Cardiff University.
"Determining the structure of the gold-palladium nanoparticle will help us understand how this catalyst works at the atomic level ... (and) subsequently lead to development of other gold-based catalysts," said Kiely, director of Lehigh's Nanocharacterization Laboratory.
The research appears in Science magazine.
