Achieving high yields in the production of bulk chemicals is an important goal for the chemical industry. We investigated the influence of the metal on the catalytic performance of M/MgCuCr2O4 (M = Cu, Ag, Pd, Pt, Au) catalysts to better understand the metal-support synergy for the aerobic oxidation of ethanol. Pt/MgCuCr2O4 and Pd/MgCuCr2O4 are more active and less selective for ethanol oxidation than the other catalysts, mainly because they can dehydrogenate and then cleave the carbon-carbon bonds in ethanol at relatively low temperature. Because of the facile oxidation of Cu-0 and Ag-0 under aerobic oxidation conditions, Cu/MgCuCr2O4 and Ag/MgCuCr2O4 are less active for ethanol oxidation. On contrary, Au/MgCuCr2O4 is a very active, selective and stable,catalyst for sustainable production of acetaldehyde, achieving 96% selectivity at full ethanol conversion (space-time-yield up to 583 g(aldehyde) g(Au)(-1)h(-1)) at 250 degrees C. Low gold loading and high gold dispersion are important to enhance the Au-0-Cu+ synergy and the catalytic efficiency of Au/MgCuCr2O4. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.