Gas phase stabiliser-free production of hydrogen peroxide using supported gold–palladium catalysts

Hydrogen peroxide synthesis from hydrogen and oxygen in the gas phase is postulated to be a key reaction step in the gas phase epoxidation of propene using gold–titanium silicate catalysts. During this process H₂O₂ is consumed in a secondary step to oxidise an organic molecule so is typically not observed as a reaction product. We demonstrate that using AuPd nanoparticles, which are known to have high H₂O₂ synthesis rates in the liquid phase, it is possible to not only oxidise organic molecules in the gas phase but to detect H₂O₂ for the first time as a reaction product in both a fixed bed reactor and a pulsed Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) reactor without stabilisers present in the gas feed. This observation opens up possibility of synthesising H₂O₂ directly using a gas phase reaction.