Al-MCM-41 supported palladium catalyst for methane combustion: Effect of the preparation methodologies

This work aimed at elucidating the beneficial effect of plasma treatment on the catalytic performance of palladium (Pd) catalysts in methane combustion with the ordered mesoporous molecular sieve Al-MCM-41 as the model support. The plasma treated Pd/Al-MCM-41 catalyst exhibited a higher initial activity and a better stability in comparison with the untreated counterpart catalyst. To clarify the plasma effect, the catalysts were characterized by N₂ sorption analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia (NH₃-TPD), pyridine adsorption-infrared spectroscopy (Py-IR), high resolution-transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and temperature-programmed reduction (CH₄-TPR) experiments. The results obtained confirmed that palladium oxide (PdO) was the active phase. Plasma treatment enhanced the acidity of catalyst and improved the dispersion of PdO particles, which lead to a higher initial activity. The better stability for plasma treated Pd-based catalyst was proved to be closely related to the stronger interaction between palladium oxide and the molecular sieve support. In addition, the sintering of PdO particles over the plasma treated catalyst was not significant during the stability test. These findings may provide useful guidelines for further catalyst design for methane combustion.     

t-Butylation of p-cresol with t-butyl alcohol over mesoporous Al-MCM-41 molecular sieves

Selective liquid-phase t-butylation of p-cresol with t-butyl alcohol (t-BuOH) to produce 2-t-butyl-p-cresol (TBC) has been conducted over Al-MCM-41 catalysts with different Si/Al ratios. The effects of various reaction parameters such as temperature, reaction time and n_t-BuOH:n_p-cresol ratio on the conversion of p-cresol and the selectivity of TBC have been systematically investigated as well. When the Si/Al ratio of Al-MCM-41 catalysts is increased from 21 to 104 (respectively yielding Al-MCM-41(21), Al-MCM-41(42), Al-MCM-41(62), Al-MCM-41(83) and Al-MCM-41(104)), both the conversion of p-cresol and the yield and selectivity of TBC decrease due to the decrease of the number of Brønsted acid sites of the Al-MCM-41 catalysts. Al-MCM-41(21) catalyst is found to give the highest conversion of p-cresol (88.2%) and the highest selectivity of TBC (90.40%) under the optimal n_t-BuOH:n_p-cresol mole ratio of 2:1, the optimal reaction temperature of 90 °C and the optimal reaction time of 2 h. Furthermore, Al-MCM-41(21) can be recycled up to at least four times without losing its catalytic performance for butylation reaction.     

Efficient catalysis of mesoporous Al-MCM-41 for Mukaiyama aldol reactions

Mesoporous aluminosilicates, Al-MCM-41 (Si/Al = 20 and 50), efficiently catalyzed Mukaiyama aldol reaction of benzaldehyde with 1-(trimethylsiloxy)cyclohexene in CH₂Cl₂ at 0 °C to afford the corresponding β-trimethylsiloxy ketone in quantitative yield. On the other hand, mesoporous silica (MCM-41), amorphous SiO₂–Al₂O₃, and H–Y and H-ZSM-5 zeolites barely catalyzed the reaction. Additionally, the less ordered Al-MCM-41 prepared by mechanical compression exhibited much lower catalytic activity compared with Al-MCM-41, indicating that the presence of the ordered mesoporous structure in aluminosilicates is crucial for the catalysis. The Al-MCM-41 catalyzed Mukaiyama aldol reaction was applicable to a wide range of aldehydes and silyl enol ethers. Furthermore, the Al-MCM-41 catalyst could be recycled at least three times without any loss in the yield. Thus, mesoporous aluminosilicates are promising heterogeneous catalysts for fine chemicals synthesis.     

Efficient catalysis of mesoporous Al-MCM-41 for Mukaiyama aldol reactions

Mesoporous aluminosilicates, Al-MCM-41 (Si/Al = 20 and 50), efficiently catalyzed Mukaiyama aldol reaction of benzaldehyde with 1-(trimethylsiloxy)cyclohexene in CH₂Cl₂ at 0 °C to afford the corresponding β-trimethylsiloxy ketone in quantitative yield. On the other hand, mesoporous silica (MCM-41), amorphous SiO₂–Al₂O₃, and H–Y and H-ZSM-5 zeolites barely catalyzed the reaction. Additionally, the less ordered Al-MCM-41 prepared by mechanical compression exhibited much lower catalytic activity compared with Al-MCM-41, indicating that the presence of the ordered mesoporous structure in aluminosilicates is crucial for the catalysis. The Al-MCM-41 catalyzed Mukaiyama aldol reaction was applicable to a wide range of aldehydes and silyl enol ethers. Furthermore, the Al-MCM-41 catalyst could be recycled at least three times without any loss in the yield. Thus, mesoporous aluminosilicates are promising heterogeneous catalysts for fine chemicals synthesis.     

Evaluation of various types of Al-MCM-41 materials as catalysts in biomass pyrolysis for the production of bio-fuels and chemicals

MCM-41, is one of the latest members of the mesoporous family of materials. They possess a hexagonal array of uniform mesopores (1.4–10 nm), high surface areas (>1000 m²/g) and moderate acidity. Due to these properties the MCM-41 materials are currently under study in a variety of processes as catalysts or catalyst supports. The objective of this study was to evaluate different types of MCM-41 materials as potential catalysts in the catalytic biomass pyrolysis process. We expected that the very high pore size and the mild acidity of these materials could be beneficial to reformulate the high molecular weight primary molecules from biomass pyrolysis producing useful chemical (and especially phenolic compounds) and lighter bio-oil with less heavy molecules. Three different samples of Al-MCM-41 materials (with different Si/Al ratio) and three metal containing mesoporous samples (Cu–Al-MCM-41, Fe–Al-MCM-41 and Zn–Al-MCM-41) have been synthesised, characterized and tested as catalysts in the biomass catalytic pyrolysis process using a fixed bed pyrolysis combined with a fixed catalytic reactor and two different types of biomass feeds. Compared to conventional (non-catalytic) pyrolysis, it was found that the presence of the MCM-41 material alters significantly the quality of the pyrolysis products. All catalysts were found to increase the amount of phenolic compounds, which are very important in the chemical (adhesives) industry. A low Si/Al ratio was found to have a positive effect on product yields and composition. Fe–Al-MCM-41 and Cu–Al-MCM-41 are the best metal-containing catalysts in terms of phenols production. The presence of the Al-MCM-41 material was also found to decrease the fraction of undesirable oxygenated compounds in the bio-oil produced, which is an indication that the bio-oil produced is more stable.     

Effect of lanthanum addition on the thiophene hydrodesulfurization activity over Al-MCM-41 supported molybdenum catalysts

A series of Al-MCM-41 modified with 1–7% lanthanum were used as supports to prepare the Mo/La–Al-MCM-41 catalysts containing 10 wt.% molybdenum. The supports and catalysts were characterized with XRD, BET, XPS, TPD, TEM and SEM, and their catalytic activities were tested for thiophene hydrodesulfurization. The La addition did not cause any significant collapse of the structure and morphology of Al-MCM-41 samples, and increased the acidity of Al-MCM-41 samples. The Mo/La–Al-MCM-41 catalysts showed higher thiophene HDS activity than non-modified catalysts. The La-modified catalysts showed an enhanced butene selectivity but a decreased tetrahydrothiophene selectivity, indicating that the La–Al-MCM-41 supports contained a larger amount of acid sites.     

Pyrolysis of biomass in the presence of Al-MCM-41 type catalysts

Al-MCM-41 type mesoporous catalysts were used for converting the pyrolysis vapours of spruce wood in order to obtain better bio-oil properties. Four Al-MCM-41 type catalysts with a Si/Al ratio of 20 were tested. The catalytic properties of Al-MCM-41 catalyst were modified by pore enlargement that allows the processing of larger molecules and by introduction of Cu cations into the structure.Spruce wood pyrolysis at 500 °C was performed and the products were analysed with the help of on-line pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). In addition, thermogravimetry/mass spectrometry (TG/MS) experiments were applied for monitoring the product evolution under slow heating conditions (20 °C/min) from 50 to 800 °C.Levoglucosan is completely eliminated, while acetic acid, furfural and furanes become quite important among cellulose pyrolysis products over the unmodified Al-MCM-41 catalyst. The dominance of phenolic compounds of higher molecular mass is strongly cut back among the lignin products. Both the increase of the yield of acetic acid and furan and the decrease of large methoxyphenols are repressed to some extent over catalysts with enlarged pores. The Cu modified catalyst performed similarly to the catalyst with enlarged pore size in converting the pyrolysis vapours of wood, although its pore size was similar to the unmodified Al-MCM-41.     

Hybrid zeolitic-mesostructured materials as supports of metallocene polymerization catalysts

The potential application of hybrid ZSM-5/Al-MCM-41 zeolitic-mesostructured materials as supports of metallocene polymerization catalysts has been investigated and compared with the behaviour of standard mesoporous Al-MCM-41 and microporous ZSM-5 samples. Hybrid zeolitic-mesostructured solids were prepared from zeolite seeds obtained with different Si/Al molar ratios (15, 30 and 60), which were assembled around cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) micelles to obtain hybrid materials having a combination of both zeolitic and mesostructured features. (nBuCp)₂ZrCl₂/MAO catalytic system was impregnated onto the above mentioned solid supports and tested in ethylene polymerization at 70 °C and 5 bar of ethylene pressure. Supports and heterogeneous catalysts were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms at 77 K, transmission electron microscopy, ²⁷Al-MAS-NMR, ICP-atomic emission spectroscopy and UV-vis spectroscopy.Catalysts supported over hybrid ZSM-5/Al-MCM-41 (Si/Al = 30-60) exhibited the best catalytic activity followed by those supported on Al-MCM-41 (Si/Al = 30-60). However, catalyst supported on ZSM-5 gave lower polymerization activity because of its microporous structure with narrower pores and lower textural properties than hybrid and mesoporous materials.Although higher acid site population shown by hybrid materials could contribute to the stabilization of the metallocene system on the support, in this case their better catalytic performance is mainly ascribed to the larger textural properties.     

Vapor-phase tert-butylation of p-hydroxytoluene over Al-MCM-41 and PWA supported Al-MCM-41 mesoporous molecular sieve catalysts

Mesoporous Al-MCM-41 and PWA, impregnated with different weight percent catalysts have been prepared and investigated by combining structural and textural properties of both the catalysts. The catalytic behavior of both the Al-MCM-41 and PWA impregnated catalysts were evaluated for tert-butylation of p-hydroxy toluene. Among the series of catalysts, 20 wt% PWA impregnated catalyst was found to have superior activity for the alkylation of p-hydroxytoluene. The activity was increased with more PWA content upto 20 wt%. This implied that the PWA loaded Al-MCM-41catalysts had enhanced acid strength, thereby increasing the Bronsted acid sites for the tertiarybutylation of p-hydroxytoluene. Various parameters viz. feed rate, temperature, feed ratio of p-HT and MTBE, Time on stream and WHSV were optimized for the reaction.     

Silica Gel- and MCM-41-Supported MoS2 Catalysts for HDS Reactions

MCM-41- and silica gel-supported MoS₂ catalysts were prepared. MCM-41 was synthesized and impregnated with precursor, then activated to obtain the active phase. The sol–gel method was used for providing the SiO₂ support as well as for including the catalyst precursors in one single step of preparation. Such catalysts have applications particularly in hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) processes. A comparison of the activities of the catalysts was made. The catalytic activity results showed the method of preparation used in this study was successful in producing very efficient catalysts for the HDS of dibenzothiophene (DBT).A higher selectivity for direct C–S bond cleavage was observed for the MoS₂ catalyst supported on SiO₂ by the sol–gel method. X-ray diffraction studies showed that the catalysts were poorly crystallized with a very weak intensity of the (002) line of 2H-MoS₂.     

Wet oxidation of wastewater containing hydrocarbons by novel supported Pd catalysts

Pd catalysts supported on TiO₂, ZrO₂, ZSM-5, MCM-41 and activated carbon were used in catalytic wet oxidation of hydrocarbons such as phenol, m-cresol and m-xylene. It was found that the Pd/TiO₂ catalyst was highly effective in the wet oxidation of hydrocarbon. The activities of catalysts with various hydrocarbon species, catalyst support, oxidation state of catalyst performed in a 3-phase slurry reactor show that reaction on Pd surface is more favorable than that in aqueous phase and that the active site is oxidized Pd in catalytic wet air oxidation of hydrocarbons. Based on the experimental results, a plausible reaction mechanism of wet oxidation of hydrocarbons catalyzed over Pd/TiO₂ catalyst was proposed. This catalyst is superior to other oxide catalysts because it suppressed the formation of hardly-degradable organic intermediates and polymer.     

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes synthesis with high yield utilizing Pt/Al-MCM-41 via catalytic chemical vapour deposition technique

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were synthesized over Pt impregnated Al-MCM-41 catalyst by decomposition of acetylene and characterized by XRD and nitrogen sorption isotherm to study the mesophase nature of the material. The optimum temperature and flow rate of the carbon source for CNTs synthesis are 800 °C and 60 mL/min, respectively, within a short reaction period, typically 10 min. Moreover, longer reaction time (i.e. 30 min) favours the formation of more amorphous carbon. When the reaction time is reduced to less than 10 min, formation of amorphous carbon is greatly suppressed by the high yield of MWNTs (85%). The products obtained from the decomposition of acetylene over these catalysts were characterized by TGA, SEM, TEM and Raman spectroscopy. The TEM analysis reveals that CNTs are free from amorphous carbon, whereas Raman spectrum shows two prominent peaks at 1,327 and 1,594 cm⁻¹ as the tangential modes of CNTs. As a conclusion, Pt/Al-MCM-41 is an effective template for MWNTs synthesis using acetylene as a carbon source.     

Catalytic oxidation of styrene by manganese(II) bipyridine complex cations immobilized in mesoporous Al-MCM-41

Manganese 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) complex cations, [Mn(bpy)₂]²⁺, have been immobilized in mesoporous Al-MCM-41 (Si/Al=9) and used as a catalyst for the oxidation of styrene by iodosylbenzene, H₂O₂ and tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP). The oxidation products included epoxide, diol and aldehyde. Al-MCM-41-immobilized [Mn(bpy)₂]²⁺ exhibited a higher catalytic activity for styrene oxidation than the corresponding homogeneous catalyst and showed no significant loss of catalytic activity when recycled. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Well-Dispersed Gallium-Promoted Sulfated Zirconia on Mesoporous MCM-41 Silica

Gallium-promoted sulfated zirconia (SZ) was confined inside pure-silica MCM-41 (abbreviated as SZGa/MCM-41), where the latter served as a host material. It was prepared by direct dispersion of metal sulfate in the as-synthesized MCM-41 materials, followed by thermal decomposition. The SZGa/MCM-41 catalysts were characterized by XRD, N₂ adsorption, HRTEM, DRIFT, NH₃-TPD, and TPR. The experimental results showed that the ordered porous host structure was still maintained in the catalyst. SZ was in meta-stable tetragonal phase and highly dispersed on the interior surface of MCM-41 even at a high loading of 50 wt%. Additionally, a small fraction of SZ nanoparticles on the external surface of MCM-41 was obtained. The catalytic activity of SZGa/MCM-41 was examined in n-butane isomerization. In comparison to SZ/MCM-41 without promoter, the catalytic activities of the Ga-promoted catalysts were greatly improved. The reason proposed for the higher activity of the Ga-promoted catalysts was that Ga enhances the oxidizing ability of the catalysts.     

Melamine-Formaldehyde-Supported Titanium-Based Heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta Catalyst for Ethylene Polymerization in Slurry Process

Ethylene was polymerized at 40°C temperature and 1 atm. pressure using melamine-formaldehyde (M-F) supported titanium tetrachloride (TiCl₄) catalyst. Polymer-supported catalysts were prepared with a different weight ratio of TiCl₄/ M-F in hexane. The wt% titanium incorporated in the polymer matrix was determined by UV-visible spectroscopy. In addition, the resulting catalysts were characterized by SEM-EDX, XRD, and TGA. The catalytic productivity is found to be 4721.09 g PE/g Ti/h. The productivity of the catalysts also depends on the titanium content in the polymer matrix. The catalyst with titanium content 3.5 wt% showed maximum activity. These catalysts also showed good storability.     

Study of Methane Decomposition on Fe/MgO-Based Catalyst Modified by Ni,Co, and Mn Additives

Catalytic decomposition of methane (CDM) generates clean hydrogen and carbon nanomaterials. In this study, methane decomposition to hydrogen and carbon was investigated over Ni-, Co-, or Mn-doped Fe/MgO catalysts. The doping effect of different metals, varying from 3 to 10?wt%, was investigated. The catalytic performance of the obtained materials (noted 15%Fe+x%metal/MgO) revealed that the doping effect of Ni, Co, and Mn significantly improved the activity of Fe/MgO. Among the Ni-doped catalyst series, the 15%Fe+3%Ni/MgO catalyst performed better than the rest of the Ni catalysts. The 6%Co-containing catalyst remained the best in terms of activity in the Co-doped catalyst series and the 15%Fe+6%Mn/MgO solid showed better methane conversion for the Mn-doped series. Overall, 3%Ni-containing catalyst displayed the best catalytic performance among all Ni-, Co-, and Mn-doped catalysts. XRD, N₂ sorption, and H₂ temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), Laser–Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) under air, and temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO) were used for catalyst characterization. The results revealed that all the doped catalysts exhibited better metallic active site distribution than 15%Fe/MgO and proved that metal doping played a crucial role in catalytic performance.     

Effect of Al content on the assembly of Al-MSU-S mesostructures: zeolite seed structure change from zeolite LZY to LTA with increasing Al content

Al-MSU-S mesoporous molecular sieve catalysts with Al contents ranging from 2.5 to 50 mol% have been prepared from “zeolite seed” solutions and C₁₆ TMABr templates. Hexagonal mesoporous structures are formed that exhibit significantly higher amounts of tetrahedrally coordinated Al than analogous Al-MCM-41 catalysts. The Al-MSU-S catalysts also possess smaller pores than corresponding Al-MCM-41 materials. Catalytic cumene cracking activity is very high over the low Al content materials (2.5 mol%), approaching that of zeolite ZSM-5, but the catalytic activity decreases with increasing Al. As the Al content is increased, the Al atoms remain tetrahedrally coordinated but become less accessible to the cumene reagent. This and knowledge of zeolite synthesis suggest the formation of zeolite seeds other than the large pore LZY, such as the small pore LTA structure.     

Characteristics of Al-MCM-41 supported Pt catalysts: effect of Al distribution in Al-MCM-41 on its catalytic activity in naphthalene hydrogenation

Naphthalene hydrogenation was carried out in a high-pressure batch reactor over platinum catalysts supported on Al-MCM-41 where aluminum was incorporated through two different methods: a direct sol–gel method (Pre) and post-synthetic grafting method (Post). The catalytic reaction was also performed in the presence of dibenzothiophene to investigate the sulfur tolerance. The hydrogenation activity, selectivity and the sulfur tolerance strongly depended on the acidic nature of Al-MCM-41 support. It was suggested that the acid sites of Al-MCM-41-Post be more accessible than those of Al-MCM-Pre due to different aluminum distribution within the pore wall. The naphthalene and tetralin conversion increased with the acid amount of the supports in Pt/Al-MCM-41 catalysts. The acid sites in bifunctional catalysts seemed to contribute to alternative pathway by the spillover hydrogen in the acid–metal interfacial region for naphthalene hydrogenation, since the metal dispersions were kept constant for Pt/Al-MCM-41 catalysts. The trans-decalin selectivity generally increased with temperature or acid amount. The acid sites seemed to enhance the sulfur tolerance of supported platinum catalysts due to the electron-deficient state of metal.     

Liquid phase catalytic hydrodechlorination of aryl chlorides over Pd–Al-MCM-41 catalyst

Supported Pd catalysts were prepared by direct hydrothermal (DHT) or template-ion exchange (TIE) method on Al-substituted MCM-41 as the support and tested in the hydrodechlorination of aryl chlorides such as 4-chloroanisole in liquid phase, together with impregnated Pd catalysts as references. When Pd was loaded on Al-MCM-41 with the Si/Al ratio of 150 by the TIE method, the catalyst showed the highest activity among the Pd catalysts prepared. PdO originally formed on the catalyst surface was in situ reduced to Pd metal during the reaction as the active form for the dechlorination. The activities of the supported Pd catalysts well correlated with the Pd dispersion on the TIE or impregnated Pd catalysts, whereas the DHT catalysts showed relatively high activities independently on the Pd dispersions. It was confirmed that the dechlorination proceeded by a heterogeneous mechanism catalyzed by Pd metal particles sized less than 10 nm on the surface of the catalyst. Al substitution for Si on MCM-41 was effective for the loading of Pd metal with the high dispersion, none the less Pd was located on the surface of the TIE catalyst particles and no significant effect of mesoporous structure on the reaction was observed. Methanol was the most profitable as the solvent among the various solvents tested. Various types of arylchlorides bearing hydroxy, methoxy, methyl, nitro and phenylcarbonyl group at the p-position were efficiently dechlorinated over Pd–Al-MCM-41 catalyst at 40 °C. Electrophilic attack of arylchloride was proposed as the rate determining step, where ionic mechanism positively worked and electron-releasing substituents increased the catalytic activity.     

Al-MCM-41 inside a glass–ceramic scaffold: A meso–macroporous system for acid catalysis

Al-MCM-41 was incorporated, through a sol–gel based dipping approach, inside a glass–ceramic scaffold belonging to the SiO₂–CaO–Na₂O–Al₂O₃ (SCNA) system, to obtain an acidic system with bimodal porosity in the meso- and macro-range. First, SCNA was investigated by means of wide-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and hot stage microscopy (HSM) in order to select the optimal sintering condition to fabricate the macroporous foam-like carrier for Al-MCM-41. Then, Al-MCM-41 was incorporated into the SCNA scaffold; the pH value of Al-MCM-41 synthesis solution, used for the scaffold impregnation process, was shown to be a crucial parameter, on identical scaffold dipping time, to determine the distribution and the stability of the incorporated phase. The systems were characterized by means of XRD, N₂ adsorption/desorption, TGA and SEM coupled with EDS.The Al-MCM-41-containing scaffold is active in the acid-catalyzed sucrose hydrolysis, chosen as model reaction, at variance with the scaffold as such.