The scope of metal oxide modified noble metal (M+ M′ O x) catalysts was scrutinized in the hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde to crotyl alcohol as a model reaction under mild reaction conditions (303 K, 0.8 MPa, water solvent), demonstrating that MoO x, WO x, NbO x, FeO x and ReO x are effective metal oxides for Ir/SiO2 to enhance both the activity and selectivity, although the optimized (metal oxide)/(Ir metal) molar ratio depends on the metal oxide. ...