Highly efficient room-temperature oxidation of cyclohexene and d-glucose over nanogold Au/SiO2 in water

Silica-supported nanogold catalysts suspended in 30% hydrogen peroxide using ultrasound are highly active and selective for cyclohexene and d-glucose oxidation at room temperature. In these conditions a polar reactant, D-glucose, can be efficiently and directly converted with 100% yield using this system, while a conversion of apolar cyclohexene is limited by the addition of a surfactant improving cosolubility in the system and/or catalyst/support wettability. To our best knowledge this is the first time that hydrogen peroxide has been used efficiently in association with a gold catalyst for the selective oxidation of cyclohexene in a biphasic system.