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Updated: Mar 23, 2026

Synthesis and Catalytic Performance of Gold Intercalated in the Walls of Mesoporous Silica
Published on: July 9, 2015
Clean Transformation of Ethanol to Useful Chemicals. The Behavior of a Gold-Modified Silicalite Catalyst
Ermelinda Falletta1, Michele Rossi2, Joaquim Henrique Teles3
1Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Milano and CNR-ISTM, via Golgi 19, Milano 20133, Italy. ermelinda.falletta@unimi.it.
Abstract:
Upon addition of gold to silicalite-1 pellets (a MFI-type zeolite), the vapor phase oxidation of ethanol could be addressed to acetaldehyde or acetic acid formation. By optimizing the catalyst composition and reaction conditions, the conversion of ethanol could be tuned to acetaldehyde with 97% selectivity at 71% conversion or to acetic acid with 78% selectivity at total conversion. Considering that unloaded silicalite-1 was found to catalyze the dehydration of ethanol to diethylether or ethene, a green approach for the integrated production of four important chemicals is herein presented. This is based on renewable ethanol as a reagent and a modular catalytic process.
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