Catalytic activity of ethylene oxidation over Au, Ag and Au–Ag catalysts: Support effect

Au, Ag and Au–Ag catalysts on different supports of alumina, titania and ceria were studied for their catalytic activity of ethylene oxidation reactions. An addition of an appropriate amount of Au on Ag/Al2O3 catalyst was found to enhance the catalytic activity of the ethylene epoxidation reaction because Au acts as a diluting agent on the Ag surface creating new single silver sites which favor molecular oxygen adsorption. The Ag catalysts on both titania and ceria supports exhibited very poor catalytic activity toward the epoxidation reaction of ethylene, so pure Au catalysts on these two supports were investigated. The Au/TiO2 catalysts provided the highest selectivity of ethylene oxide with relatively low ethylene conversion whereas, the Au/CeO2 catalysts was shown to favor the total oxidation reaction over the epoxidation reaction at very low temperatures. In comparisons among the studied catalysts, the bimetallic Au–Ag/Al2O3 catalyst is the best candidate for the ethylene epoxidation. The catalytic activity of the gold catalysts was found to depend on the support material and catalyst preparation method which govern the Au particle size and the interaction between the Au particles and the support.