Photochemical deposition: a simple and effective approach to catalyst preparation for cinnamaldehyde hydrogenation

Photochemical deposition of noble metals over metal oxide supports has the advantage of spreading very effectively the metal throughout the support, thus leading to high dispersions. Materials with catalytic properties can be prepared in this way and used in many applications including selective hydrogenation of unsaturated organic substrates containing oxygenated functional groups, like steroids or α,β-unsaturated aldehydes, which are used in the industrial preparation of fine chemicals. Titania supported Pt and Ir catalysts were prepared by photodeposition. They were used in the cinnamaldehyde selective hydrogenation to test their activity and selectivity. The photodeposition method was able to produce materials with an outstanding performance for selective hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde, leading to a selectivity as high as 64% towards cinnamyl alcohol at 79% conversion under mild operating conditions.

Photochemical deposition: a simple and effective approach to catalyst preparation for cinnamaldehyde hydrogenation Conference Paper