Study on Non-Palladium Active Components of Selective Hydrogenation Catalysts

Pd has high activity for hydrogenation reaction and adjustable selectivity, which is an absolute advantage in the selection of hydrogenation catalysts in industry. However, it is expensive. Therefore, new catalysts that can replace Pd have always been a hot research field.

Au is the earliest metals used in catalysis. Au/Al2O3 has high selectivity for selective hydrogenation of acetylene. When Au particle size was less than 3nm, the activity of the catalyst was significantly enhanced, the addition of LiO was helpful to improve the acetylene conversion.  The Au-Ag bimetallic catalyst carrier on SiO2 has better activity than Au monometallic catalyst at high temperature. After pretreatment with oxygen plasma to remove organic matter, Au/SiO2 and Au-Ag/SiO2 showed better activity at lower temperature. Modification of Au with Ni and iron oxide also resulted in better activity of bimetallic catalysts.

For non-precious metal catalysts that can replace Pd, DFT has become an indispensable research tool. The calculation of the surface adsorption energy and reaction activation energy of acetylene shows that the selectivity of Fe(1,2)@W(111), that is, the surface of W(111) whose first two layers of atoms are replaced by Fe, for the hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene can be Up to 100%, the (100) surface of the intermetallic Al13Co4 exhibits good selectivity in the catalytic selective hydrogenation of acetylene. Armbruster investigated the catalytic performance of Al13Fe4 in selective hydrogenation of acetylene. The stability of Al13Fe4 was good. The conversion and selectivity of acetylene at 200℃ were close to that of the industrial selective hydrogenation catalyst.The comparison results at 200℃ are not representative.