Switching off propene hydrogenation in the direct epoxidation of propene over gold-titania catalysts

► Gold-titanium catalysts are effective for the direct propene epoxidation with H2 and O2. ► Very low gold-loaded catalysts exhibit a remarkably high activity. ► An undesired side reaction is that a lot of propane is produced. ► This undesired reaction can be blocked completely by co-feeding a small amount of CO.