Gold on carbon: influence of support properties on catalyst activity in liquid-phase oxidation

Gold-on-carbon catalysts have been prepared from a preformed metallic phase (metal sol). Using, as the support, active carbons of different microstructure and surface properties, we found that each carbon affected differently the reactivity of the same gold particle in a standard liquid-phase oxidation, indicating that a specific metal–support interaction does exist, probably connected to the density of phenolic groups at the surface.