Gold clusters supported on alkaline treated TS-1 for highly efficient propene epoxidation with O2 and H2

Gold could be deposited as clusters smaller than 2.0 nm in diameter on TS-1 by solid grinding (SG) of the support with dimethyl Au(III) acetylacetonate after TS-1 was pretreated in aqueous solution of alkaline metal hydroxides. While in C3H6 epoxidation with O2 and H2 mixture Au nanoparticles larger than 2.0 nm deposited on TS-1 without alkaline treatment gave a very low PO formation rate of 11 gPO kgcat.−1 h−1, Au clusters on alkaline treated TS-1 presented a greatly enhanced rate as high as 137 gPO kgcat.−1 h−1, which was comparable to the best data reported so far. In addition, very high H2 efficiency reaching 47% could be obtained by gold clusters on alkaline treated TS-1.