Complete methane oxidation over Pd catalyst supported on α-alumina. Influence of temperature and oxygen pressure on the catalyst activity

The influence of the reaction parameters including temperature, oxygen concentration, and of in situ hydrogen reduction on the Pd catalyst activity towards complete methane oxidation is studied experimentally.Zero porosity α-alumina plates are used as a support for Pd catalyst. This lowers the influence of metal–support interaction on the catalyst state as confirmed by UV–visible spectroscopy. A plug flow reactor with a high linear gas velocity is used to measure the reaction rate. Overall conversion is kept low for most of the experiments so that the reaction is in the kinetically limited regime. The oxidation state of the catalyst before and after the reaction is determined using UV–visible reflectance spectroscopy of the plate surface. Changes in the catalyst activity with time are monitored after stepwise changes in the reaction parameters.Activity was found to decrease with time at low temperatures and high oxygen concentrations (condition when PdO phase is stable) and to increase with time at high temperatures and low oxygen concentrations (conditions when Pd is stable). A sharp increase in conversion was observed after the in situ hydrogen reduction of the sample.The experimental data is consistent with the reduced Pd form of the catalyst being more active towards methane oxidation than the oxidized PdO form at high temperatures. Possible particle size and morphology effects are discussed.     

Toluene combustion over palladium supported on various metal oxide supports

Metal–support interaction in the catalytic combustion of toluene was studied using metal oxides with different acid–base properties as supports for Pd. The catalytic performance was correlated with XPS data and the reaction order for oxygen. These studies revealed that the affinity for oxygen of Pd surface changed according to the acid–base character of metal oxide over MgO, Al₂O₃, SiO₂, SnO₂, Nb₂O₅, and WO₃. However, ZrO₂ exhibited exceptional character in that metal Pd was unusually stabilized, which was derived from the weak interaction between Pd and support surface. The reason for high toluene combustion activity of Pd/ZrO₂ was ascribed to the stabilization of metal Pd on ZrO₂.     

Preparation of new solid superacid catalyst, zirconium sulfate supported on γ-alumina and activity for acid catalysis

Zirconium sulfate supported on γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts were prepared by impregnation of powdered γ-Al₂O₃ with zirconium sulfate aqueous solution followed by calcining in air at high temperature. For Zr(SO₄)₂/γ-Al₂O₃ samples, no diffraction line of zirconium sulfate was observed up to 50 wt.%, indicating good dispersion of Zr(SO₄)₂ on the surface of γ-Al₂O₃. The acidity of catalysts increased in proportion to the zirconium sulfate content up to 40 wt.% of Zr(SO₄)₂. 40-Zr(SO₄)₂/γ-Al₂O₃ calcined at 400 °C exhibited maximum catalytic activities for 2-propanol dehydration and cumene dealkylation. The catalytic activities for both reactions, 2-propanol dehydration and cumene dealkylation were correlated with the acidity of catalysts measured by ammonia chemisorption method.     

Partial hydrogenation of cyclopentadiene over amorphous NiB alloy on α-alumina and titania-modified α-alumina

Amorphous nickel–boron alloys supported on α-alumina (NiB/Al₂O₃) and on titania-modified α-alumina (NiB/TMA) with titania loadings ranging from 1·25 to 10 wt% were prepared by a reductive impregnation method, which resulted in a highly dispersed NiB amorphous alloy on the support. When used as catalysts for partial hydrogenation of cyclopentadiene to cyclopentene in a flow fixed-bed reactor at atmospheric pressure, the NiB/Al₂O₃ showed higher activity than Ni/Al₂O₃ and Pd/Al₂O₃ but the NiB/TMA with 5 wt% of titania loading (NiB/TMA5) showed the highest activity of all for the production of cyclopentene in a temperature range of 80–200°C with 10 g gcat⁻¹ h⁻¹ of cyclopentadiene feed. The maximum yield of cyclopentene was 97% on NiB/TMA5, 92% on NiB/Al₂O₃, 60% on Ni/Al₂O₃ and 23% on Pd/Al₂O₃, respectively. The catalytic stability of the amorphous NiB/TMA5 was also excellent with time on stream. The catalyst samples were characterized by ICP, XRD, XPS, BET, TEM and O₂ adsorption. The probable modification mechanism is discussed. © 1998 SCI     

Studies of the activation process over Pd perovskite-type oxides used for catalytic oxidation of toluene

Calcined and reduced catalysts Pd/LaBO₃ (B = Co, Fe, Mn, Ni) were used for the total oxidation of toluene. Easiness of toluene destruction was found to follow the sequence based on the T₅₀ values (temperature at which 50% of toluene is converted): Pd/LaFeO₃ > Pd/LaMnO_3+δ > Pd/LaCoO₃ > Pd/LaNiO₃. In order to investigate the activation process (calcination and reduction) in detail, the reducibility of the samples was evaluated by H₂-TPR on the calcined catalysts. Additionally, characterization of the Pd/LaBO₃ (B = Co, Fe) surface was carried out by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) at each stage of the global process, namely after calcination, reduction and under catalytic reaction at either 150 or 200 °C for Pd/LaFeO₃ and either 200 or 250 °C for LaCoO₃. The different results showed that palladium oxidized entities were totally reduced after pre-reduction at 200 °C for 2 h (2 L/h, 1 °C/min). As LaFeO₃ was unaffected by such a treatment, for the other perovskites, the cations B are partially reduced as B³⁺ (B = Mn) or B²⁺ even to B⁰ (B = Co, Ni). In the reactive stream (0.1% toluene in air), Pd⁰ reoxidized partially, more rapidly over Co than Fe based catalysts, to give a Pd²⁺/Pd⁴⁺ and Pd⁰/Pd²⁺/Pd⁴⁺ surface redox states, respectively. Noticeably, reduced cobalt species are progressively oxidized on stream into Co³⁺ in a distorted environment. By contrast, only the lines characteristic of the initial perovskite lattice were detected by XRD studies on the used catalysts. The higher activity performance of Pd/LaFeO₃ for the total oxidation of toluene was attributed here to a low temperature of calcination and to a remarkable high stability of the perovskite lattice whatever the nature of the stream which allowed to keep a same palladium dispersion at the different stages of the process and to resist to the oxidizing experimental conditions. On the contrary, phase transformations for the other perovskite lattices along the process were believed to increase the palladium particle size responsible of a lower activity.     

The effect of water on the activity of supported palladium catalysts in the catalytic combustion of methane

Supported palladium catalysts are very active in the combustion of methane, but still little is known about the kinetic parameters. In this paper a rate expression is presented for an alumina-supported palladium oxide catalyst in the temperature range 180–515°C. Special care was taken to ensure differential conditions during the experiments. In this way, an apparent activation energy of 151±15 kJ/mol was found. The orders in methane, oxygen and water were 1.0±0.1, 0.1±0.1 and −0.8±0.2, respectively. For carbon dioxide a zero order was observed under all conditions. Inhibition by water produced during the reaction was demonstrated to cause non-differential conditions, when a dry feed was used. The rate constant that corrects for this effect could be derived.     

EXAFS study on Pd–Pt catalyst supported on USY zeolite

Local structure around Pd and Pt in the bimetallic Pd–Pt catalysts supported on ultra stable Y (USY) zeolite (SiO₂/Al₂O₃=680) was investigated by an extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) method during oxidation, reduction, and sulfidation. The Pt L III-edge EXAFS spectra showed that a new bond that was significantly different from Pt–Pt to Pt–Pd metallic bonds was formed in the bimetallic Pd–Pt (4:1) reduced catalysts supported on USY zeolite. This new bond may reflect the ionic properties of Pt through the Pt–Pd interaction. Furthermore this new bond survived sulfidation indicating that the bond has a cationic property and sulfur-tolerance property. The Pt–Pd ionic interaction in these catalysts allows some of the Pd metal to survive as metallic phase. The existence of this metallic phase under sulfidation condition may result in high activity of Pd–Pt (4:1) catalyst supported on USY zeolite in the aromatics hydrogenation.     

Calculation of the energy profile for the fluorination of dichloromethane over an α-alumina catalyst

We present a periodic density functional theory study of the energetic profile of the fluorination of dichloromethane over the {0 0 0 1} surface of α-alumina. This is a model system for the industrially important fluorination process used in synthesis of fluorohydrocarbon replacements of the environmentally detrimental chlorofluorcarbons. The results indicate that HF is readily, and strongly, chemisorbed to the alumina surface producing a surface fluorine ion and a hydroxyl group. Using this model of the fluorinated surface we calculate the adsorption energy of dichloromethane and estimate the barrier to its reaction to CH₂ClF through an S_N2 scheme with the surface fluorine acting as a nucleophile. From the energy profile generated we propose a kinetic scheme and estimate the expected experimentally observed barrier for the overall process. To test the calculation results we have also carried out experimental studies of dichloromethane fluorination over α-alumina and show that the calculated and measured activation energies are in good agreement.     

Chemical modelling and measurements of the catalytic combustion of CH4/air mixtures on platinum and palladium catalysts

This work reports experimental measurements and a modelling study carried out on palladium and platinum based catalytic monoliths used as methane combustors for heating purposes. It concentrates on the effects of operating conditions on combustion, heat transfer efficiency and pollutant formation. The development of a detailed homogeneous/heterogeneous chemical kinetics model for methane–air combustion over palladium using literature data was undertaken to model the behaviour of one of the experimental catalytic heaters. In addition, a published detailed chemical mechanism for methane combustion over platinum was used in the platinum catalyst model. The fuel–air equivalence ratios ranged from 0.3 to 0.6 and the space velocities used were between 24 000 and 72 000 h⁻¹. Although the model assumed perfectly stirred reactor (PSR) conditions and was applied to localised regions of the monoliths where little radial gradients of temperature and concentrations were measured, it predicted the surface temperature, methane slippage, CO and NO_x at the downstream face of the monolith with reasonable accuracy in some cases, but also highlighted the shortcomings of the PSR assumption in other cases.     

Highly stable Fe/γ‐Al2O3 catalyst for catalytic wet peroxide oxidation

BACKGROUND: A highly stable Fe/γ‐Al₂O₃ catalyst for catalytic wet peroxide oxidation has been studied using phenol as target pollutant. The catalyst was prepared by incipient wetness impregnation of γ‐Al₂O₃ with an aqueous solution of Fe(NO₃)₃· 9H₂O. The influence of pH, temperature, catalyst and H₂O₂ doses, as well as the initial phenol concentration has been analyzed. RESULTS: The reaction temperature and initial pH significantly affect both phenol conversion and total organic carbon removal. Working at 50 °C, an initial pH of 3, 100 mg L^?1 of phenol, a dose of H₂O₂ corresponding to the stoichiometric amount and 1250 mg L^?1 of catalyst, complete phenol conversion and a total organic carbon removal efficiency close to 80% were achieved. When the initial phenol concentration was increased to 1500 mg L^?1, a decreased efficiency in total organic carbon removal was observed with increased leaching of iron that can be related to a higher concentration of oxalic acid, as by‐product from catalytic wet peroxide oxidation of phenol. CONCLUSION: A laboratory synthesized γ‐Al₂O₃ supported Fe has shown potential application in catalytic wet peroxide oxidation of phenolic wastewaters. The catalyst showed remarkable stability in long‐term continuous experiments with limited Fe leaching, < 3% of the initial loading. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry     

The effect of mass transfer on the catalytic combustion of benzene and methane over palladium catalysts supported on porous materials

Catalytic combustion of benzene and methane over palladium catalysts supported on FAU and MOR zeolites and MCM-41 and KIT-1 mesoporous materials were studied to illustrate the effect of pore size and shape of supports on their catalytic activities. The palladium catalysts supported on mesoporous materials showed high activity and a steep increase in the conversion of benzene with rising temperature. The low activity of palladium catalysts supported on FAU zeolite was ascribed to mass transfer limitation. However, conversion profiles of methane on palladium catalysts were similar, although their supports were different as zeolites and mesoporous materials. The catalytic behavior of palladium catalysts in the combustion of benzene and methane was explained by the diffusion properties of fuels in the pores of zeolites and mesoporous materials.     

γ‐Alumina supported Cu‐Ni bimetallic catalysts: Characterization and selective hydrogenation of 1,3‐butadiene

Addition of a second metal often improves the selectivity of a supported catalyst for the hydrogenation of 1,3‐butadiene. Catalysts containing 15 wt% Ni and varying amounts of Cu were prepared and characterized by TPR, XRD and XPS. The Cu‐Ni interaction affects the reduction behavior of the catalysts. TPR result shows that the synergetic effect of copper and nickel modifies the capability of metal to combine with hydrogen in bulk phase. The Ni 2p spectra in XPS shows significant shifts toward lower binding energies with increasing copper loading. From XRD results it is represented that aggregation of nickel occurs more easily due to the copper addition. The adding of copper on Ni/Al₂O₃ makes the conversion rate decreased and increases the selectivity to 1‐butene.     

Effect of sintering on the catalytic activity of a Pt based catalyst for CO oxidation: Experiments and modeling

The goal of this paper was to make the link between sintering of a 1.6% Pt/Al₂O₃ catalyst and its activity for CO oxidation reaction. Thermal aging of this catalyst for different durations ranging from 15 min to 16 h, at 600 and 700 °C, under 7% O₂, led to a shift of the platinum particle size distributions towards larger diameters, due to sintering. These distributions were studied by transmission electron microscopy. The number and the surface average diameters of platinum particles increase from 1.3 to 8.9 nm and 2.1 to 12.8 nm, respectively, after 16 h aging at 600 °C. The catalytic activity for CO oxidation under different CO and O₂ inlet concentrations decreases after aging the catalyst. The light-off temperature increased by 48 °C when the catalyst was aged for 16 h at 600 °C. The CO oxidation reaction is structure sensitive with a catalytic activity increasing with the platinum particle size. To account for this size effect, two intrinsic kinetic constants, related either to platinum atoms on planar faces or atoms on edges and corners were defined. A platinum site located on a planar face was found to be 2.5 more active than a platinum site on edges or corners, whatever the temperature. The global kinetic law {r (mol m⁻² s⁻¹) = 103 × exp(−64,500/RT)[O₂]^0.74[CO]^−0.5)} related to a reaction occurring on a platinum atom located on planar faces allows a simulation of the CO conversion curves during a temperature ramp. Modeling of the catalytic CO conversion during a temperature ramp, using the different aged catalysts, allows prediction of the CO conversion curves over a wide range of experimental conditions.     

Hydrodechlorination of dichloromethane, trichloroethane, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene over a sulfided Ni/Mo–γ-alumina catalyst

The hydrodechlorination reactions of dichloromethane, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene were examined over a commercial Ni/Mo–γ-alumina catalyst in a packed-bed reactor. This preliminary study was focused in the influence of the catalyst pre-treatment (sulfidation), temperature, pressure and nature of the solvent over the reaction yield. The evolution of the catalytic activity was also examined. As an overall, results indicate that catalytic hydrodechlorination might be a suitable method for the destruction of the above mentioned chlorinated compounds, since conversions to non-chlorinated organics were found to be close to 100%, operating at 100 bar and 350°C over a sulfided Ni/Mo–γ-alumina catalyst. However, the catalyst resistance to deactivation must be enhanced.     

Synthesis, characterization and catalytic applications of mesoporous γ-alumina from boehmite sol

In this study, boehmite sols were used as aluminum precursors for preparing mesoporous alumina (MA) having crystalline framework walls in the presence of non-ionic surfactants as structure directing agents. Nitrogen physisorption showed that aluminas prepared in this way displayed very rich porosities with large mesopores, and both the pore volumes and the pore sizes increased with the surfactant concentration. The improved textural parameters in the samples should be attributed to the three-dimensional interconnected scaffold-like channels, which were formed by randomly ordered stacking and condensing of rigid boehmite nanoparticles with the aid of the surfactant. TEM observations revealed that the precursor morphology had an important effect on the textural properties of the mesoporous alumina. The sample with a corrugated platelet-like morphology exhibited a large surface area of 463 m²/g, which was reduced to 81 m²/g after calcination at 1200 °C, indicating a strong resistance to sintering. This material, with its improved textural properties, crystalline framework walls and high thermal stability, not only could increase the dispersion of the active catalytic species, but also could enhance the diffusion efficiency and mass transfer of reactant molecules when employed as catalyst supports. As examples, our MA samples demonstrated a remarkable enhancement in the catalytic performances for both reactions of SO₂ catalytic reduction by CO and catalytic combustion of methane.     

Influence of the preparation method on the structure–activity of cobalt oxide catalysts supported on alumina for complete benzene oxidation

In the present work we studied the influence of the methodology used for mounting Co(II) species on the γ-alumina surface on the physicochemical properties and the catalytic activity of the ‘cobalt oxide’/γ-alumina catalysts for complete oxidation of benzene.Three series of catalysts of varying Co content (up to 21 wt.% Co) were prepared using three preparation methods: pore volume impregnation (pvi), equilibrium deposition filtration (edf) and pore volume impregnation adding nitrilotriacetic acid (nta) in the impregnation solution. It was found that the catalytic activity for low, medium and high Co content follows, respectively, the orders, nta–pvi pvi edf, nta–pvi edf ≈ pvi and edf > nta–pvi > pvi.The catalysts prepared were characterized using various techniques (BET, UV–vis/DRS, XRD and XPS) at each step of the preparation procedure, namely after the Co(II) mounting on the support surface, after drying as well as after calcination. It was inferred that the most active sites are located on Co₃O₄-supported crystallites, loosely or moderately interacting with the γ-alumina surface. Two critical parameters, related with the method followed for mounting Co(II) species on the γ-alumina surface, control the characteristics of the supported phase and thus the amount and the size of the above-mentioned Co₃O₄ crystallites: the ratio ‘amount of Co(II) deposited in the impregnation step to that remaining in the liquid phase inside the pores precipitating thus in the drying step’ closely related with the ratio ‘amount of Co(II) in the deposited phase (isolated Co(II) surface inner sphere complexes and Co(II) surface precipitates)/amount of Co(II) in the precipitated phase formed in the drying step’ as well as the composition of the precipitated phase.The application of the pvi technique resulted to low values for the above ratios and thus to the formation of a rather unstable precipitated phase consisted mainly by Co(H₂O)₆²⁺·2NO₃⁻. Upon calcination it is transformed into loosely bounded Co₃O₄ crystallites of relatively big size. This is related with the low Co dispersion and thus with the low catalytic activity exhibited by these catalysts.The application of edf resulted to high values for the above-mentioned ratios. Therefore, the deposited phase is predominant. Upon calcination it is transformed to well (very well) dispersed cobalt phases strongly (too strongly) bounded with the support surface and thus reducible at high temperatures (non reducible up to 800 °C). Although these phases are responsible for the high Co dispersion achieved they do not contribute to the catalytic activity unless the deposited phase mainly comprises a Co(II) surface precipitate with relatively large number of layers as it is the case for the sample with the maximum Co content.The application of the nta–pvi technique resulted to very low values for the ratios mentioned above. This is because the [Co(II)–nta]⁻ and [Co(II)–2nta]⁴⁻ complexes, in which the Co(H₂O)₆²⁺ complex is completely transformed, are not practically adsorbed on the support surface. Therefore, in the nta–pvi catalysts a precipitated phase containing the [Co(II)–nta]⁻·NH₄⁺(or H⁺) and [Co(II)–2nta]⁴⁻·4NH₄⁺ (or 4H⁺) complex salts predominates. Upon calcination these are transformed into Co₃O₄ crystallites of small size, which are moderately interacting with the support surface. This is related with the relatively high Co dispersion, mainly that for the catalytically active species, and thus with high catalytic activity.     

Low-temperature 1,3-butadiene hydrogenation over supported Pt/3d/γ-Al2O3 bimetallic catalysts

Low-temperature 1,3-butadiene hydrogenation is used as a probe reaction to investigate the hydrogenation activity over several γ-Al₂O₃ supported Pt/3d (3d = Co, Ni, Cu) bimetallic catalysts. Batch and flow reactor studies are employed to quantify the kinetic activity and steady-state conversion, respectively, of each catalyst. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is utilized to characterize particle sizes and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements are performed to verify the Pt–3d bimetallic bond formation. Pulse carbon monoxide chemisorption measurements are also performed to characterize the number of active sites. Additionally, density functional theory (DFT) calculations are included to determine the binding energies of 1,3-butadiene and atomic hydrogen on the corresponding model surfaces. The binding energies of the adsorbates are found to correlate with the hydrogenation activity, allowing for use of such correlation to potentially predict hydrogenation catalysts with enhanced activity based on the binding energies of the adsorbates of interest.