Facile Redispersion of Au Nanoparticles on Activated Carbon with Alkyl Halides: Role of C-X (X = I, Br, Cl) Bond Dissociation Energy and Its Implication

Alkyl halides can effectively redisperse the sintered Au/AC catalysts under mild and safe conditions. The reactivated catalysts are regained activity for hydrochlorination catalysis. The correlation between BDEs of alkyl halides and dispersion efficiency of Au NPs is established, which provide a directive descriptor for the regeneration of sintered Au catalysts.