Potential of gold nanoparticles for oxidation in fine chemical synthesis

In recent years supported gold nanoparticles have emerged as efficient catalysts with considerable synthetic potential for liquid-phase oxidation reactions based on molecular oxygen as oxidant. Here we critically review the most attractive applications related to the selective oxidation of functional groups containing O, N, or Si heteroatoms. The reactions include the oxidation of alcohols, aldehydes, and organosilanes; the diverse transformations of amines; benzylic oxidations; and some one-pot multistep reactions starting with alcohol or amine oxidation. In complex liquid-phase transformations relying on bifunctional catalysis, appropriate choice of the support is frequently more important than the size of the gold particles. In some oxidation reactions gold nanoparticles outperform the traditional platinum-group metal catalysts, but the latest results indicate the superiority of bimetallic particles containing gold and platinum, palladium, or rhodium. The environmentally benign nature of the transformations is discussed.