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Partial oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde was carried out over gold catalysts supported on various oxides and zeolites by deposition precipitation. The special focus of this work was on the influence of H-Y zeolite surface charge on Au cluster size and loading linking it to activity and selectivity in ethanol oxidation and comparing with other studied catalysts. The catalysts were characterized by nitrogen physisorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDXA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and zeta potential measurements. pH of the solution governed the Au NPs size within the range of 5.8–13.2 nm with less negatively charged surfaces leading to formation of smaller clusters. Au loading on H-Y zeolite with silica to alumina ratio of 80 was increased by raising the pH. In fact, H-Y-12 and H-Beta-25 were selective towards diethyl ether while acetaldehyde was the prevalent product on less acidic H-Y-80. The results demonstrated strong dependency of the catalytic activity on the Au cluster size. Namely turn over frequency (TOF) decreased with an increase in metal size from 6.3 to 9.3 nm on H-Y-80. Selectivity towards acetaldehyde and ethyl acetate did not change significantly on H-Y-80 within 6.3–9.3 nm Au particle size range. On Al 2 O 3 support, however, selectivity towards acetaldehyde increased considerably upon diminishing Au average particle size from 3.7 to 2.1 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]