Influence of surface functionalities on Au/C catalysts for oxidative homocoupling of phenylboronic acid

DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.5c02262

Authors: Tanja E. Parmentier (Cardiff University) , Anna Lazaridou (Cardiff University) , Joseph Cartwright (Cardiff University) , Ben Davies (Cardiff University) , Simon Dawson (Cardiff University) , Grazia Malta (Cardiff University) , Simon Freakley (Cardiff University; University of Bath) , Thomas E. Davies (Cardiff University) , David J. Morgan (Cardiff University) , Simon Kondrat (Cardiff University; Loughborough University) , Christopher J. Kiely (Lehigh University) , Samuel Pattisson (Cardiff University) , Nicholas F. Dummer (Cardiff University) , Graham J. Hutchings (Cardiff University)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Acs Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering , VOL 55

State: Published (Approved)
Published: June 2025
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 15151

Abstract: The formation of C–C bonds through coupling reactions is an important industrial process. The ability of Au to catalyze such reactions has been reported, with both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalyst examples. Previous work has shown that carbon-supported cationic and nanoparticulate Au are active for the homocoupling of phenylboronic acid to biphenyl. However, the stability of supported cationic Au is short-lived, and the formed nanoparticles were suggested to be the active species. Through the synthesis of two types of supported cationic Au catalysts, utilizing either aqua regia or acetone solvents, we show that both catalysts develop nanoparticulate Au species early in the reaction; however, only the aqua regia prepared catalyst is active. We ascribe the activity of the aqua regia prepared Au catalyst to excess Cl and the presence of C–Cl surface species in combination with Au. Carbon treated with aqua regia was inactive; however, when used as a support for Au deposited with acetone or via a sol immobilization method, activity was comparable to the aqua regia prepared catalyst. The role of C–Cl and Au nanoparticles is discussed with respect to their correlation to the biphenyl yield, which is shown to be significant only when the C–Cl species are present on the catalyst.

Subject Areas: Chemistry, Materials


Instruments: B18-Core EXAFS

Added On: 15/06/2025 20:52

Documents:
parmentier-et-al-2025-influence-of-surface-functionalities-on-au-c-catalysts-for-oxidative-homocoupling-of.pdf

Discipline Tags:

Physical Chemistry Catalysis Chemistry Materials Science Nanoscience/Nanotechnology Organometallic Chemistry

Technical Tags:

Spectroscopy X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS)