Highly Dispersed Palladium Nanoparticles on Mesocellular Foam: An Efficient and Recyclable Heterogeneous Catalyst for Alcohol Oxidation

Palladium nanoparticles immobilized on amino-functionalized mesocellular foam constitute an efficient catalyst for the aerobic oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols to their corresponding carbonyl compounds in high to excellent yields (see figure). An exceptionally high TON of 365 000 was reached for the oxidation of 1-phenylethanol under solvent-free reaction conditions. The catalyst can be recycled many times with retained activity as shown by the identical rate curves of the first and fifth runs.