LAUSR

Abstract Selective esterification of aliphatic aldehydes and alcohols with ethanol in the absence of a base is a more difficult reaction than that with methanol. Gold nanoparticles on ZnO were found to catalyze the oxidative esterification of octanal to ethyl octanoate with high selectivity. In addition, it was found that Au/ZnO was the most effective catalyst for yielding the desired ethyl ester without a base by direct esterification of 1-octanol with ethanol. As far as we know, this is the first report on oxidative esterification to give aliphatic ethyl esters from less reactive aliphatic alcohols and aldehydes without a base. The optimal size of gold NPs ranged from 2 to 6 nm and the presence of Au(0) was indispensable for this reaction. Au/ZnO exhibited the highest catalytic activity in both batch and flow reactors. The conversion was maintained for more than 20 h with 95% selectivity to the desired ethyl ester in the flow system.