Gold nanoparticle stabilization within tailored cubic mesoporous silica: Optimizing alcohol oxidation activity

Abstract Stabilizing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) within a desired size range is critical to realize their promising catalytic performance in many important reactions. Herein, we investigate the anti-sintering properties of cubic mesoporous silica (FDU-12) as a function of pore entrance size. Simple adjustments to the type of organic template and reaction temperature enable the successful synthesis of FDU-12 with controllable entrance sizes ( Au –1 h –1 ) and selectivity (> 99%) at 230 °C for the gas-phase selective oxidation of cyclohexanol.