Fully dispersed Pt entities on nano-Au dramatically enhance the activity of gold for chemoselective hydrogenation catalysis.

Adding a small amount of fully dispersed Pt entities onto the Au surface in Au/SiO(2) catalyst is found to be an efficient approach to improve the catalytic activity of Au (up to 70-fold) for the hydrogenation of α,ß-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, without alternating its selectivity towards C=O or C=C bond hydrogenation.