Selective oxidation by mixed metal nanoparticles

The growth of modern society mirrors is dependent on the development of more efficient catalytic processes. Catalysis is a key enabling technology in the production of new materials, improving health of populations and securing food production. Oxidation reactions using molecular oxygen are a potential route to many commodities and driving a more sustainable chemical industry, however the large-scale adoption of selective oxidation reactions using precious metal catalysts is still limited. The development of new methods to produce well-defined bimetallic catalysts has accelerated the understanding of structure-activity relationships in many oxidation processes. This has led to significantly increased performance compared to monometallic analogues in terms of activity, selectivity and stability. This chapter concerns the use of well-defined bimetallic nanoparticles catalysts containing precious metals and reviews the classes of materials reported to date and the development of these materials as catalysts for selective oxidation of alkanes and biomass derived polyols.