Designing Oxidation Catalysts

Seminar with

Professor Graham Hutchings

School of Chemistry, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.

Abstract: Oxidation remains one of the principle methods by which hydrocarbon feedstocks can be activated for use in the manufacture of fuels and chemicals. While there have been many advances in selective hydrogenation catalysis, progress with oxidation has been much more limited. Control of reaction selectivity in oxidation reactions can often be a problem, especially with molecular oxygen as the oxidant. In this presentation approaches to designing oxidation catalysts will be described and specific examples of vanadium phosphates and gold catalysis will be discussed.