Nature chemistry

Vapour-phase gold-surface-mediated coupling of aldehydes with methanol

B Xu, X Liu, J Haubrich, CM Friend

Index: Xu, Bingjun; Liu, Xiaoying; Haubrich, Jan; Friend, Cynthia M. Nature Chemistry, 2010 , vol. 2, # 1 p. 61 - 65

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Citation Number: 96

Abstract

Selective coupling of oxygenates is critical to many synthetic processes, including those necessary for the development of alternative fuels. We report a general process for selective coupling of aldehydes and methanol as a route to ester synthesis. All steps are mediated by oxygen-covered metallic gold nanoparticles on Au (111). Remarkably, cross-coupling of methanol with formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzaldehyde and benzeneacetaldehyde to ...