One-pot deposition of gold on hybrid TiO 2 nanoparticles and catalytic application in the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol

One-pot deposition of Au onto TiO2 has been achieved through directly contacting gold (III) salt with nanosized functionalized TiO2 support initially obtained by sol–gel process using titanium isopropoxide and citric acid. Citrate groups act as functional moieties able to directly reduce the Au salt avoiding any further reducing treatment. Various gold salts (NaAuCl4·2H2O or HAuCl4·3H2O) and titanium to citrate (Ti/Cit) molar ratios (20, 50 and 100) were used in order to study the effect of the nature of the precursor and of the citrate content on the final Au particle size and catalytic properties of the as-obtained Au/TiO2 materials.