Hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde in a gas phase at atmospheric pressure over Pt/Ga2O3 catalysts was studied. Two types of platinum precursors [Pt(acac)(2) and H2PtCl6] and two gallia supports (alpha-Ga2O3 [60.7 m(2)/g] and beta-Ga2O3 [2.2 m(2)/g]) were used for catalyst preparation. The catalyst 5 wt% Pt/alpha-Ga2O3 prepared from Pt(acac)2 precursor showed very high and stable selectivity to crotyl alcohol (91% and 63% at 10% and 70% crotonaldehyde conversion, respectively). Because Pt-supported catalysts, showing a high selectivity, usually have relatively low activity, the most interesting finding of this study is that the use of gallium oxide as a support for platinum makes it possible to obtain catalysts with significantly increased C=O bond hydrogenation selectivity while maintaining high activity. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.