Palladium Nanoparticles on Modified Cellulose as a Novel Catalyst for Low Temperature Gas Reactions

Palladium was incorporated into carboxymethylated cellulose fibers as a support, thereby becoming an efficient and stable catalyst for low temperature gas phase reaction. Thus, NO was used as test molecule of Greenhouse Gas to be catalytically reduced with hydrogen on an eco-friendly sustainable material containing palladium as the active site. Prior to the catalytic test, the catalysts were reduced with glucose as an eco-friendly reagent. The material characterization was performed by SEM-EDS, XRD, LRS, TGA and FTIR.The catalytic results showed that at 170°C, NO conversion was 100% with a selectivity of 70% to nitrogen. While NOX species were completely converted into N2 at temperatures higher than 180°C. The starting commercial material Solucell® was also studied, but its performance resulted lower than the ones of functionalized fibers.The use of this strategy, i.e., the functionalization of cellulose fibers followed by in-situ formation of metallic nanoparticles, can be further applied for the design of a wide range of materials with interesting applications for gas and liquid phase reactions under mild conditions.

How Recyclability can Reduce Induction Period of Gold Nanocatalysts

The effect of recyclability on the catalytic activity of supported Au101(PPh3)21Cl5 nanoparticles (1.0 wt% Au101/AC) was investigated for benzyl alcohol oxidation under mild conditions. The influence of recyclability on the catalytic activity of activated Au101/AC nanocatalysts was studied trough a comparison of gold particle diameter and also catalysts conversion between the fresh (as synthesized) and recycled gold catalysts. The monitoring of gold particle diameters by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that the gold particles size gradually increased during the catalytic reaction. The mean diameter of the fresh gold catalysts increased from approximately 3 to 3.2, 5.1 and 5.3 nm after 1, 2 and 3 h reaction time, respectively. Whereas the average gold particle diameter of the recycled samples were slightly enlarged from approximately 5.3 (the sample recycled after 3 h of the first catalytic test) to 5.7, 5.9 and 6.2 nm with durations of 1, 2 and 3 h reaction time, respectively. Therefore, larger gold particles gradually formed for fresh and also recycled gold catalysts during reaction tests. Meanwhile, the catalytic activity of activated 1.0 wt% Au101/AC catalysts jumped to full conversion when the recycled gold catalysts were utilized due to removing ligand stabilizer from gold particles and so bigger particles had formed.

The Efficiency of Co/CeO2 Catalyst in Ethanol Steam Reforming Process

A Co/CeO2 catalyst for ethanol steam reforming process was prepared and characterized using different characterization techniques including X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance, FTIR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms (BET) and thermal analysis method (TGA). The catalytic test in ethanol steam reforming process showed a high H2 yield and almost complete ethanol conversion.

Synthesis of Mesoporous Tungsten Oxide/γ-Alumina and Surfactant-Capped Tungsten Oxide Nanoparticles and Their Catalytic Activities in Oxidative Cleavage of Oleic Acid

Unsaturated fatty acids can be converted into mono and dicarboxylic acids, which are applicably valuable materials, through oxidative cleavage reaction in the presence of a highly efficient catalyst/oxidant system. In this work, two types of advanced heterogeneous catalysts have been developed; (i) high surface area mesoporous tungsten oxide/γ-alumina mixed metal oxide, and (ii) surfactant-capped tungsten oxide nanoparticles. Various technique including N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms, XRD, SEM, EDS, TGA and catalytic test were used to monitor the physicochemical and catalytic properties of these materials. The characterization results revealed that type (i) materials exhibit high surface area and narrow particle size distribution, and the used surfactant could quantitatively enough cap the surface of type (ii) materials. The catalytic activities of these materials in the oxidative cleavage of oleic acid with H2O2 as oxidant were investigated. GC-MS was used to determine the produced amounts of desired products, azelaic and pelargonic acids. The catalytic test results showed more than 90 % conversion for type (ii) catalyst in 5 h reaction at 120 °C with acceptable production yields for azelaic and pelargonic acids. The significantly higher activity of this catalyst compared to type (i) arises from the interesting surface properties of tungsten oxides nanoparticles, which make them able to exploit the good features of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts.