Citral hydrogenation over Ir/TiO2 and Ir/TiO2/SiO2 catalysts

The Mitigation of CO Present in the Water–Gas Shift Reformate Gas over IR-TiO2 and IR-ZrO2 Catalysts

CO hydrogenation and oxidation were conducted over Ir supported on TiO2 and ZrO2 catalysts using a feed mimicking the water–gas shift reformate stream. The influence of the support interaction with Ir and the catalysts’ redox and CO chemisorption properties on activity and selectivity were evaluated. Both catalysts oxidised CO to CO2 in the absence of H2, and a conversion of 70% was obtained at 200 °C. For the CO oxidation in the presence of H2 over these catalysts, the oxidation of H2 was favoured over CO due to H2 spillover occurring at the active metal and support interface, resulting in the formation of interstitials catalysed by Ir. However, both catalysts showed promising activity for CO hydrogenation. Ir-ZrO2 was more active, giving 99.9% CO conversions from 350 to 370 °C, with high selectivity towards CH4 using minimal H2 from the feed. Furthermore, results for the Ir-ZrO2 catalyst showed that the superior activity compared to the Ir-TiO2 catalyst was mainly due to the reducibility of the support and its interaction with the active metal. Controlling the isoelectric point during the synthesis allowed for a stronger interaction between Ir and the ZrO2 support, which resulted in higher catalytic activity due to better metal dispersions, and higher CO chemisorption capacities than obtained for the Ir-TiO2 catalyst.

Metal and precursor effect during 1-heptyne selective hydrogenation using an activated carbon as support

Palladium, platinum, and ruthenium supported on activated carbon were used as catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of 1-heptyne, a terminal alkyne. All catalysts were characterized by temperature programmed reduction, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. TPR and XPS suggest that the metal in all catalysts is reduced after the pretreatment with H2 at 673 K. The TPR trace of the PdNRX catalyst shows that the support surface groups are greatly modified as a consequence of the use of HNO3 during the catalyst preparation. During the hydrogenation of 1-heptyne, both palladium catalysts were more active and selective than the platinum and ruthenium catalysts. The activity order of the catalysts is as follows: PdClRX>PdNRX>PtClRX≫RuClRX. This superior performance of PdClRX was attributed in part to the total occupancy of the d electronic levels of the Pd metal that is supposed to promote the rupture of the H2 bond during the hydrogenation reaction. The activity differences between PdClRX and PdNRX catalysts could be attributed to a better accessibility of the substrate to the active sites, as a consequence of steric and electronic effects of the superficial support groups. The order for the selectivity to 1-heptene is as follows: PdClRX=PdNRX>RuClRX>PtClRX, and it can be mainly attributed to thermodynamic effects.