MgO-supported Cu nanoparticles for efficient transfer dehydrogenation of primary aliphatic alcohols

Basic MgO-supported Cu nanoparticles showed exceptionally high activity for transfer dehydrogenation of 1-octanol and the yield of 1-octanal was as high as 58% at 423 K. The Cu/MgO catalyst was also sufficiently active for aromatic, secondary aliphatic and cyclic alcohols, and the yields of the corresponding aldehydes or ketones approached almost 100%. Structure–reactivity correlation revealed that the synergistic effect between the basicity of MgO and the hydrogen spillover of Cu nanoparticle contributed significantly to the extremely high activity in transfer dehydrogenation of alcohols.