New concepts in solid acid catalysis: Some opportunities offered by dispersed copper oxide

Copper oxide supported on silica by the Chemisorption-Hydrolysis technique shows a moderate Lewis acidic character due to coordinative unsaturation of the finely dispersed supported metallic phase. Comparison of this material with a conventional acidic catalyst, namely SiO2-Al2O3, puts in light the advantages of this kind of acidic material in three different reactions. Thus, the use of CuO/SiO2 boosts selectivity toward glucose formation in cellulose deconstruction reactions while b-alkoxyalcohol are formed with 100 % regioselectivity in epoxide ring opening ones. Moreover, preliminary tests on Friedel Crafts acylation of anisole with acetic anhydride show that only the catalyst containing finely dispersed CuO is able to promote this reaction due to both Lewis acidic properties and easy desorption of the acylating agent from the surface.