Preparation of gold catalysts for glucose oxidation

The investigations focused on the influence of doping an alumina support with different base metal oxides on the catalytic performance of gold catalysts to oxidize glucose to gluconic acid. Sodium oxide and calcium oxide strongly enhanced the reaction rate for catalysts prepared by both the deposition–precipitation and incipient wetness method. Urea was used as the precipitation agent in the former. The total selectivity of the catalysts was not influenced by the dopants. TEM analysis revealed very small gold particles of less than 2 nm for sodium doped catalysts prepared by the two methods.