Aiming at developing an efficient catalyst for selective dehydrogenation of benzyl alcohol into benzaldehyde in the absence of O 2 and H 2 acceptor, a series of Cu/MgO catalysts with Cu loading of 1, 3, 5, and 7% have been prepared, of which the 5% Cu/MgO catalyst in the gas phase exhibited a remarkable performance with 98% conversion and 97% selectivity and in support of the performance, the catalysts have been characterized by different techniques like BET surface area analysis, XRD, TEM, CO 2 -TPD, N 2 O pulse chemisorption, XPS and TPR.

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Oxidative coupling of benzylamines to N-benzylbenzylimines under base- and additive-free conditions is achieved over AuNPs/SBA-NH2. Facile preparation, high activity, ease of separation and good reusability are the credentials of AuNPs/SBA-NH2 catalyst.

A Rh/ED‐KIT‐6 catalyst comprised of Rh nanoparticles embedded on mesoporous silica (KIT‐6) functionalized with N1‐[3‐(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]ethane‐1,2‐diamine was synthesized by Rh3+ adsorption and chemical reduction in the liquid phase. The structure of ED‐KIT‐6 and textural properties of the pristine and supported Rh catalysts, as well as particle size and chemical state of the Rh species were examined by various analytical methods. The homogeneous dispersion of ultrasmall Rh nanoparticles, approximately 1.2 nm in size, stabilized by the grafted diamine (ED) species was confirmed. Rh/ED‐KIT‐6 was applied to the transfer hydrogenation of furfural (FFR) to furfuryl alcohol (FAL) by using formic acid (FA) as the hydrogen source. The effect of the solvent and reaction parameters, such as temperature, reaction time, and FA/FFR ratio, were investigated. The Rh‐embedded catalyst exhibited a significantly high turnover frequency (TOF≈204 h−1) to that of Ru, Pd, or Ni‐based catalysts on KIT‐6. A plausible reaction mechanism was proposed after examining an independent FA decomposition reaction over the same Rh‐ED‐KIT‐6 catalyst. The heterogeneity of the catalyst was verified by a hot filtration experiment. The Rh/ED‐KIT‐6 could be reused for up to three cycles without any decrease in catalytic activity and selectivity, but the slow oxidation of Rh species was detected.