(684f) Synthesis and Characterization of Microporous Carbon Spheres Based Catalyst for Liquid Phase Hydrogenation Reactions

Maryam Peer ^a*, Ramakrishnan Rajagopalan ^c, Henry C. Foley ^a

^a Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

^c The Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

*mop5104@psu.edu

The goal in this study was to synthesize and use platinum embedded in microporous carbon spheres as catalyst in liquid phase hydrogenation reactions. These microporous carbon spheres benefit from high surface area and small particle size, which affects the diffusion length and mass transport of reactants to the active platinum sites. Using furfuryl alcohol as the monomer and a micellar polymerization process, carbon spheres with particle size of 400 nm were synthesized. Size of the spheres was controlled by changing the surfactant concentration in the solution. In addition, the synthesized carbon spheres were also used as catalyst supports and impregnated with platinum precursors to produce carbon supported platinum catalysts. The mass transport effects were studied in detail by performing liquid phase hydrogenation reactions using various alkenes on both types of catalysts.

The synthesized catalysts were fully characterized using different characterization methods. Pore size distribution of the porous carbon spheres was measured using nitrogen adsorption in a Micromeritic ASAP 2020 instrument. Adsorption isotherm indicated that the carbon is completely microporous. X-ray Diffraction was used to determine the platinum particle size and Transmission Electron Microscopy applied to show how good is the dispersion of the platinum particles and also to confirm the platinum particle size.

 All hydrogenation reactions for different alkenes were performed in a Parr low pressure reactor equipped with temperature and pressure control to set the temperature and pressure at the desired value. Reaction products were analyzed using a Varian GC and a capillary column. The reaction results for impregnated catalyst showed high activity comparable to commercial catalyst. The product analysis results in the case of embedded catalyst verified shape selectivity effect of the catalyst.