Nanoceria as a recyclable catalyst/support for the cyanosilylation of ketones and alcohol oxidation in cascade

[Display omitted] •Nanoceria catalyzes the cyanosilylation of different ketones at rt in high yields.•Nanoceria acts as a bifunctional acid-base solid catalyst.•The solid catalyst can be reused ten times with a simple calcination.•The catalytic activity of nanoceria is independent of the crystalline phase.•Au-nanoceria catalyzes the aerobic oxidation of alcohols/cyanosilylation reaction. The cyanosilylation of carbonyl compounds is a fundamental reaction in organic synthesis, to give cyanohydrins. Ketones are particularly reluctant to cyanosilane addition and require the action of a catalyst, and despite many soluble Brönsted and Lewis acids have been employed for this task, it is difficult to find in the open literature catalytic solids able to carry out the reaction. Here, we show that commercially available nanoceria catalyzes the cyanosilylation of different ketones (21 examples) at temperatures between 0 and 50 °C, in high yields, under solventless conditions if required. The nanoceria network atoms act in a cooperative way to provide a bifunctional acid-base solid catalyst for the cyanosilylation reaction. The amorphization of nanoceria during reaction, due to acid release, does not hamper the catalytic activity and, indeed, different types of nanoceria, even with supported metal nanoparticles on surface, are active for the reaction, enabling extensive reuses after air calcination and the use of the catalytic material for the aerobic oxidation of alcohols / cyanosilylation reaction.