Enhancement of the dispersion and catalytic performances of copper in the hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde by incorporation of aluminium into mesoporous SBA-15 silica

[Display omitted] •Incorporating aluminium into mesoporous SBA-15 silica improves Cu dispersion.•The support is stable upon exposure to an impregnation aqueous solution.•The catalytic activity is enhanced compared to silica-supported Cu catalysts.•Lewis acidic sites favour the transformation of cinnamaldehyde into cinnamyl alcohol. Copper is active in hydrogenation reactions, but it is a base metal difficult to disperse inside mesostructured supports, with adverse consequences on the catalytic properties. Incorporating aluminium into mesoporous SBA-15 silicas allows solving both problems of Cu dispersion and activity. The incorporation of 20 wt.% Al2O3 in the SBA-15 host structure leads to an increase of the copper metallic surface area by a factor 6 compared to the pure siliceous SBA-15-supported catalyst. The support also proves to be stable upon exposure to the impregnation aqueous solution used for copper introduction. The incorporation of Al provides Lewis acidic sites that favour the transformation of cinnamaldehyde into cinnamyl alcohol, a feature usually assigned to larger metal particles. As a consequence, the catalytic activity of Cu catalysts is enhanced compared to silica-supported Cu catalysts, while the chemoselectivity towards the unsaturated alcohol appears to be similar to that of a mesoporous alumina-supported system.