Patent ID: 8716170

Claim:
An eggshell catalyst particle prepared by the process; comprising: providing a dry supporting substrate particle comprising a refractory oxide; absorbing a nonpolar solvent in said supporting substrate particle to form a saturated nonpolar solvent particle; removing a portion of said nonpolar solvent from, said solvent saturated particle to form a core residual nonpolar solvent particle; absorbing a polar solvent in said core residual nonpolar solvent particle to form a biphasic particle having said polar solvent residing in a surface region proximal to the surface and said nonpolar solvent in a core region of said biphasic particle wherein a sharp liquid-livid interface between said non-polar solvent and said polar solvent; contacting said biphasic particle with a metal catalyst precursor solution comprising at least one dissolved metal salt in said polar solvent or a second solvent miscible in said polar solvent; adding a pH adjusting solution comprising a nonaqueous base to selectively nucleate metallic precursor species in said surface region; separating particulates from non-absorbed liquids; volatilizing particle absorbed liquids to form an eggshell particle; and calcining said eggshell particle to form said eggshell catalyst particle, wherein a catalytic region comprising a catalytic metal species and a core region free of said catalytic metal species display a sharp interface indicative of said sharp liquid-liquid interface between said polar solvent and said nonpolar solvent of the biphasic particle and wherein depth of penetration of said catalytic region into said core region does not vary, and wherein said catalytic metal species is uniformly distributed through said catalytic region proximal the particle's surface.