DOI: 10.1126/science.1168980. Switching Off Hydrogen Peroxide Hydrogenation in the Direct Synthesis Process

Switching Off Hydrogen Peroxide Hydrogenation in the Direct Synthesis Process

10.1126/science.1168980

Crossref journal-article

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Science (221)

Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) is an important disinfectant and bleach and is currently manufactured from an indirect process involving sequential hydrogenation/oxidation of anthaquinones. However, a direct process in which H 2 and O 2 are reacted would be preferable. Unfortunately, catalysts for the direct synthesis of H 2 O 2 are also effective for its subsequent decomposition, and this has limited their development. We show that acid pretreatment of a carbon support for gold-palladium alloy catalysts switches off the decomposition of H 2 O 2 . This treatment decreases the size of the alloy nanoparticles, and these smaller nanoparticles presumably decorate and inhibit the sites for the decomposition reaction. Hence, when used in the direct synthesis of H 2 O 2 , the acid-pretreated catalysts give high yields of H 2 O 2 with hydrogen selectivities greater than 95%.

Bibliography

Edwards, J. K., Solsona, B., N, E. N., Carley, A. F., Herzing, A. A., Kiely, C. J., & Hutchings, G. J. (2009). Switching Off Hydrogen Peroxide Hydrogenation in the Direct Synthesis Process. Science, 323(5917), 1037â1041.

Authors 7

Jennifer K. Edwards (first)
Benjamin Solsona (additional)
Edwin Ntainjua N (additional)
Albert F. Carley (additional)
Andrew A. Herzing (additional)
Christopher J. Kiely (additional)
Graham J. Hutchings (additional)

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Supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom and Johnson Matthey PLC (project ATHENA) and the European Union (project AURICAT HPRN-CT-2002-00174). C.J.K. and A.A.H. are funded by: NSF DMR-0079996 NSF DMR-0304738 and NSF-DMR-0320906. A.A.H. thanks the NRC for support through the postdoctoral associate program. We thank A. Roberts and C. Blomfield (Kratos Analytical) for assistance with XPS measurements and P. Collier P. Ellis and P. Johnston (Johnson Matthey) for discussions on analysis provision of ICP analysis data and design of the sequential experiments.

Dates

Type	When
Created	16 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 19, 2009, 6:03 p.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 7 months ago (Jan. 10, 2024, 3:07 a.m.)
Indexed	1 week ago (Aug. 29, 2025, 6 a.m.)
Issued	16 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 20, 2009)
Published	16 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 20, 2009)
Published Print	16 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 20, 2009)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Edwards_2009, title={Switching Off Hydrogen Peroxide Hydrogenation in the Direct Synthesis Process}, volume={323}, ISSN={1095-9203}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1168980}, DOI={10.1126/science.1168980}, number={5917}, journal={Science}, publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}, author={Edwards, Jennifer K. and Solsona, Benjamin and N, Edwin Ntainjua and Carley, Albert F. and Herzing, Andrew A. and Kiely, Christopher J. and Hutchings, Graham J.}, year={2009}, month=feb, pages={1037–1041} }

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