Patent Application: US-201514749222-A

Abstract:
a highly effective catalyst for the preparation of diethyl oxalate using carbon monoxide using pd / α - al 2 o 3 and ceo 2 as a promoter . high conversion rates with greatly extended catalyst life is achieved with the ceo 2 - enhanced pd catalysts . the catalysts can be used for the production of high - value diethyl oxalate , and eventually ethylene glycol , from coal - derived syngas .

Description:
as used herein , a “ promoter ” or “ enhancer ” is a chemical that is added to a catalyst to improve the performance of the catalyst in catalyzing a chemical reaction . the pd catalysts promoted by ceo 2 of the present invention had optimal performance characteristics when used at a pd loading of between 0 . 1 wt % and 1 . 2 wt %, more preferably between 0 . 4 wt % and 1 . 4 wt %, and even more preferably between 0 . 7 wt % and 1 . 0 wt %. the pd catalysts promoted by ceo 2 of the present invention had optimal performance characteristics when used at a ceo 2 loading of between 0 . 02 wt % and 1 wt %, more preferably between 0 . 07 wt % and 0 . 6 wt %, and even more preferably between 0 . 15 wt % and 0 . 25 wt %. the pd catalysts promoted by ceo 2 of the present invention had optimal performance characteristics when the pd particles had an average size of between 2 nm and 80 nm , more preferably between 5 nm and 40 nm , and even more preferably between 9 nm and 17 nm . the pd catalysts promoted by ceo 2 of the present invention had optimal performance characteristics when the pd particles had an average surface area of between 1 m 2 / g and 20 m 2 / g , more preferably between 2 m 2 / g and 12 m 2 / g , and even more preferably between 3 m 2 / g and 8 m 2 / g . the pd catalysts promoted by ceo 2 of the present invention maintained a high conversion rate for a time between 2 and 100 times longer , more preferably between 10 and 70 times longer , and even more preferably between 30 and 55 times longer , than pd catalysts that had not been promoted with ceo 2 . where ranges are used in this disclosure , the end points only of the ranges are stated so as to avoid having to set out at length and describe each and every value included in the range . any appropriate intermediate value and range between the recited endpoints can be selected . by way of example , if a range of between 0 . 1 and 1 . 0 is recited , all intermediate values ( e . g ., 0 . 2 , 0 . 3 . 6 . 3 , 0 . 815 and so forth ) are included as are all intermediate ranges ( e . g ., 0 . 2 - 0 . 5 , 0 . 54 - 0 . 913 , and so forth ). palladium ( ii ) chlolride ( pdcl 2 , reagentplus , 99 %), potassium hexachloropalladale ( iv ) ( k 2 pdcl 6 ), potassium chloride ( kcl ), l - ascorbic acid , aluminum oxide ( fused , powder , a - phase , 325 mesh ), ammonium cerium nitrate ( ceh 8 n 8 o 18 ) and polyvinylpyrrolidone ( pvp , mw : 40 k ) were purchased from sigma - aldrich and used as received without further purification . pd / α - al 2 o 3 : in a typical synthesis , k 2 pdc 16 ( 0 . 25 mmol ), pdcb ( 0 . 25 mmol ), kcl ( 7 . 5 mmol ), l - ascorbic acid ( 1 mmol ) and pvp ( 10 mmol ) were dissolved in 100 ml of deionized water . the mixed solution was refluxed at 100 ° c . for 3 h . al 2 o 3 ( 5 g ) were added in the solution and the mixture was stirred at 60 ° c . until all the solvents evaporated . the product was washed with ethanol / water and ethanol for several times and vacuum dried at 60 ° c . overnight . ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 : ammonium cerium nitrate ( 0 . 05 mmol ) was dissolved into 10 ml of deionized water . al 2 o 3 ( 5 g ) were added in the solution and the mixture was stirred at 60 ° c . until all the solvents evaporated . the mixture was dried at 100 ° c . overnight and then calcined at 500 ° c . for 5 h to get ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 . pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 catalysts : 0 . 25 mmol k 2 pdcl 6 , 0 . 25 mmol pdcl 2 , kcl ( 7 . 5 mmol ), l - ascorbic acid ( 1 mmol ), and pvp ( 10 mmol ) were dissolved in 100 ml of deionized water , followed by refluxing at 100 ° c . for 3 hrs . then ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 ( 5 g ) was added to the solution and the mixture was stirred at 60 ° c . until the complete evaporation of all the solvents . the resulting mixture was washed with ethanol / water and then ethanol for several times , and vacuum dried at 60 ° c . for 12 h . the surface areas of the catalysts were measured using nitrogen physisorption by standard brunauer - emmet - teller ( bet ) analysis ( micromeriticstristar 3000 v 6 . 04 a ). the surface areas were calculated with tristar ii 3000 software . x - ray photoelectron spectroscopy ( xps ) was measured with a physical electronics esca 5800 spectrometer which is equipped with a monochromatic al ka x - ray source ( e = 1486 . 6 ev ). the scanning step and working pressure were 0 . 1 ev and 2 × 10 − 9 mbar , respectively . binding energies were calibrated to cl s peak at 284 . 5 ev . x - ray diffraction ( xrd ) analyses were performed on a rigaku smartlab x - ray diffraction system . a cu kβ radiation source ( λ = 1 . 392 å ) working at 40 kv and 40 ma was used in the tests . the range of 28 measurements was between 20 ° to 80 ’ with 0 . 02 ° steps . the morphology and the particle size as well as the dispersion of the catalysts were studied by a scanning electron microscope ( sem - eds , fei , quanta fec mk2 ; oxford instruments america , model # 51 - xmx0005 ) and a transmission electron microscopy . ( tem , fei tecnai g2 f20 s - twin 200 kv ). samples for tem observations were prepared by dispersing the catalysts in ethanol and drying one drop of the solution on copper grids . the particle size distribution was calculated by using image j software . in situ diffuse reflectance infrared fourier transform spectroscopy ( drifts ) measurements were performed on a nicolet is50 ft - ir spectrometer ( thermo scientific , waltham , mass ., usa ) equipped with a drifts system with reaction chamber ( praying mantis model , barrick scientific products , pleasantville , n . y ., usa ) employing znse windows . after loading 20 μl of powder samples , the cell temperature was raised to 140 ° c . and allowed to thermally equilibrate for ten minutes , after which the gaseous reactants were introduced at constant flow with pressure inside the reaction chamber maintained at 2 atm . the spectra are a composite of 16 scans recorded at aresolution of 4 cm − 1 . the measurement of catalytic activity was performed in a fix - bed continuous flow reactor . the reactor configuration is shown schematically in fig1 . the catalyst ( 3 . 5 g , 2 ml ) was sandwiched with sands in as stainless steel tube reactor with an inner diameter of 1 . 2 cm . the reactant gases ( 18 % co , 15 % ch 3 ch 2 ono , and n 2 balance ) were passed through the reactor at a gas hourly space velocity ( ghsv ) of 600 - 3000 h − 1 . the deo production was carried out at a temperature of 100 - 160 ° c . and under a pressure of 0 . 1 mpa . a thermocouple was inserted into the catalyst bed to detect the reaction temperature . therefore , the temperature reported here is the catalyst bed temperature . a sri 8610c gas chromatography ( gc ) fitted with a capillary column ( restek mxt - 1 60 m × 0 . 53 mm × 5 μm ) and a molecular sieves column ( ms 13 ×) was used to analyze the tail gases . gas chromatography / mass spectroscopy ( gc - ms ) for liquid products were performed with an agilent technology 7890a gc system with a split - splitless injector ( model 7863 auto - sampler injector ) fitted with a 5957c vlmsd ms system using a capillary column ( hp - 5ms , 30 m × 0 . 250 mm × 0 . 25 μm ). when the gc analysis results show that the reaction is in steady state , the sample cylinder vessel is emptied and the start time of the reaction is recorded . samples from the sample cylinder vessel are collected in every 6 hours and the liquid products were collected and analyzed by offline gc - ms . the textural characteristics of pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst were investigated by tem , stem and sem ( fig2 ). tem images presented in fig2 a and 2 c clearly indicate that the pd nanoparticles of pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 are highly dispersed on the α - al 2 o 3 while the dispersion of pd nanoparticles of pd / α - al 2 o 3 is poor . moreover , the results in fig2 b and 2 d show that the average pd nanoparticles size of the pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst is 13 . 2 nm which is smaller than that of the pd / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst ( 17 . 3 nm ). the pd nanoparticles size distribution of the pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst is narrower than that of the pd / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst in the meanwhile . ceo 2 was difficult to detect by tem maybe due to its low loading concentration . however , the red circles in fig4 a indicate the dispersion of ceo 2 on the α - al 2 o 3 support , which is confirmed by energy dispersive x - ray ( edx ) spectra . the dispersion of ceo 2 particles was not as good as pd particles . they were aggregated into large nanoparticles with the diameters around 200 nm . in summary of the results from tem and sem , it can be concluded that the promoter ceo 2 not only promotes the dispersion of pd on the support , but also decreases the nanoparticle size of pd . the two catalysts , pd / α - al 2 o 3 and pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 , were detected with xps ( pd 3d ) before and after the reaction with co and en at 140 ° c . ( fig3 ). although there were small differences between pd / α - al 2 o 3 and pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 , the obtained pd 3d 3 / 2 and pd 3d 5 / 2 values for both pd ( 0 ) and pd ( ii ) were consistent with the published literatures . [ 32 - 34 ] in fig3 a and 3 c , both the pd 3d 5 / 2 and pd 3d 3 / 2 of catalysts pd / α - al 2 o 3 and pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 are around 335 and 340 ev , respectively , which indicates that the oxidation state of pd in the catalysts is pd ( 0 ). however , after reaction , two new peaks appeared in both the two catalysts ( fig3 c and 3 d ), which are assigned to pd ( ii ),[ 34 ] indicating that some pd ( 0 ) in the two catalysts was oxidized to pd ( ii ) by methyl nitrite to form an intermediate , ch30 - pd ( ii )— och3 . [ 13 ] the peaks area of the pd ( ii ) in fig3 d is much bigger than the peaks area in fig3 b , which indicates that more intermediate were generated on the surface of pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst , and therefore pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 may have higher catalytic activity with the addition of ceo 2 . furthermore , the percentage of the pd on both catalysts was calculated using the peaks area of the xps . the pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst showed higher pd concentration ( 0 . 92 %) than that of the pd / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst ( 0 . 81 %), which strongly suggests that the promoter ceo 2 can also enhance the pd loading concentration on the support . xps was also detected to further confirm the xps results . however , no detectable ceo 2 or pd peak was found maybe due to their low concentrations and the high dispersion of pd . [ 28 ] the catalytic performances of the two catalysts were evaluated under the same conditions . with the addition of ceo 2 , the conversion of co and en was increased from 39 % to 65 % and 64 % to 92 %, respectively ( fig4 a ). there is 50 % more of conversion for both of the reactants . the sty of deo with pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 was also greatly increased , which is 60 % higher than that of pd / α - al 2 o 3 at 140 ° c . ( table 1 ). in the meanwhile , the selectivity of deo with these two catalysts was almost the same ( around 92 %). since there was no catalytic activity found for the catalyst ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 , the ceo 2 plays an important role as a promoter and the interaction of ceo 2 with pd was responsible for the high activity and selectivity in co oxidative coupling to deo . most of all , the catalytic activity of catalyst pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 can be maintained for at least 72 h ( fig4 b ), which lays a good foundation for long - term stability . fig5 illustrate the in situ dr - ftir spectra for the reaction of co with ethyl nitrite to deo . the band at 1774 cm − 1 is attributed to the c ═ o stretching vibrations of the deo product . it is important to note that the intensity of the band at 1774 cm − 1 in the spectrum of fig5 b is stronger than that in the spectrum of fig5 a and from the integration results of the two peaks , the peak area of pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst is 20 % bigger than that of the catalyst without ceo 2 , which demonstrates the superior catalytic activity of pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 relative to pd / α - al 2 o 3 , consistent with the results of catalytic activity evaluation and tem , xps results . fig6 a shows the effect of temperature on both en and co conversion where pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 was used as the catalyst for co oxidative coupling to deo reaction . the conversion of en and co became higher with the temperature increasing , especially when the temperature increased from 120 ° c . to 140 ° c . both en and co conversion increased 20 % accordingly . however , with the temperature increasing , the selectivity of deo had almost no change except when the temperature reached to 180 ° c . both the co conversion and deo selectivity decreased at 180 ° c . due to the decomposition of the en . the pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst can be optimized to achieve a lower reaction temperature with high deo selectivity . in summary , a low pd loading pd / α - al 2 o 3 nanocatalyst with 0 . 8 % pd ( wt %) loading and the average pd size of 13 . 2 nm was synthesized for co oxidative coupling to deo . after the introduction of 0 . 2 wt % ce0 2 , pd — ceo 2 / α - al 2 o 3 catalyst showed remarkably higher catalytic activity compared with the catalyst without ceo 2 . the co conversion was increased so % more ( from 39 % to 62 % with the deo selectivity higher than 90 % when the ceo 2 , was used as a promoter and , importantly , the high activity and selectivity could be maintained up to 72 h without visible decrease . tem results is showed clearly that ceo 2 not only improved the dispersion of palladium on the surface of the support but also decreased the palladium size as well , thus resulted in the excellent catalytic activity . in consideration of the facile synthesis and low pd loading of this catalyst as well as the insecurity factors of methyl nitrite , this highly efficient and stable nanocatalyst may have a promising industrial application , especially in the us , of the coal to ethylene glycol . the foregoing exemplary descriptions and the illustrative preferred embodiments of the present invention have been explained in the figures and tables herein and attached to this application and have been described in detail , with varying modifications and alternative embodiments being taught . while the invention has been shown , described and illustrated herein , it should be understood by those skilled in the art that equivalent changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention , and that the scope of the present invention is to be limited only as precluded by prior art . moreover , the invention as described and disclosed herein may be suitably practiced in the absence of the specific elements which are described and disclosed herein . 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