Uniformly Dispersed Cu Nanoparticles over Mesoporous Silica as a Highly Selective and Recyclable Ethanol Dehydrogenation Catalyst

Selective dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde has been considered as an important pathway to produce acetaldehyde due to the atom economy and easy separation of acetaldehyde and hydrogen. Copper catalysts have attracted much attention due to the high activity of Cu species in O-H and C-H bonds oxidative cleavage, and low process cost; however, the size of the Cu nanoparticle is difficult to control since it is easily suffers from metal sintering at high temperatures. In this work, the Cu/KIT-6 catalyst exhibited an ultra-high metal dispersion of 62.3% prepared by an electrostatic adsorption method, due to the advantages of the confinement effect of mesoporous nanostructures and the protective effect of ammonia water on Cu nanoparticles. The existence of an oxidation atmosphere had a significant effect on the valence state of copper species and enhancing moderate acid sites. The catalyst treated by reduction and then oxidation possessed a moderate/weak acid site ratio of ~0.42 and a suitable proportion of Cu+/Cu0 ratio of ~0.53, which conceivably rendered its superior ethanol conversion of 96.8% and full acetaldehyde selectivity at 250 °C. The catalyst also maintained a high selectivity of >99% to acetaldehyde upon time-on-stream of 288 h.

Integrated CO2 Capture and Hydrogenation to Produce Formate in Aqueous Amine Solutions Using Pd-Based Catalyst

Integrated CO2 capture and hydrogenation to produce formate offers a sustainable approach for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and producing liquid hydrogen carriers (formate) simultaneously. In the current study, three different types of aqueous amine solutions including monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA) and triethanolamine (TEA) were investigated as CO2-capturing and hydrogenation agents in the presence of a Pd/NAC catalyst. The effect of amine structures on the CO2 absorption products and formate yield was investigated thoroughly. It was found that the formate product was successfully produced in the presence of all three aqueous amine solutions, with tertiary amine TEA accounting for the highest formate yield under the same CO2 loadings. This is due to the fact that primary and secondary amine moieties in MEA and DEA are responsible for the formation of CO2 adducts of carbamate and bicarbonate, whereas the tertiary amine moiety in TEA is responsible for the formation of hydrogenation-favorable bicarbonate as the solo CO2 absorption product. A high yield of formate of 82.6% was achieved when hydrogenating 3 M TEA with 0.3 mol CO2/mol amine solution in the presence of a Pd/NAC catalyst. In addition, the physio-chemical properties of the Pd/NAC catalyst analyzed using TEM, XRD and XPS characterization were applied to rationalize the superior catalytic performance of the catalyst. The reaction mechanism of integrated CO2 capture and hydrogenation to produce formate in aqueous amine solutions over Pd/NAC catalyst was proposed as well.