Direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide in water at ambient temperature

The direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from hydrogen and oxygen has been studied using an Au-Pd/TiO2 catalyst. The aim of this work is to understand the balance of synthesis and sequential degradation reactions using an aqueous, stabiliser-free solvent at ambient temperature. The effects of the reaction conditions on the productivity of hydrogen peroxide formation and the undesirable hydrogenation and decomposition reactions are investigated. Reaction temperature, solvent composition and reaction time have been studied and indicate that when using water as the solvent the hydrogen peroxide decomposition reaction is the predominant degradation pathway, which provides new challenges for catalyst design which has previously focused on minimising the subsequent hydrogenation reaction. This is of importance for the application of this catalytic approach for water purification. The data within comprise productivity values (mol H2O2 / kg cat / h) for reactions carried out at various experimental conditions, involving variations in temperature, pressure and concentration of water and methanol in the solvent.