Reactions over Chromium Oxide Catalysts

Chromium compounds as catalysts, 188 Chromium oxide in catalytic converter, 62 Chromium oxide catalysts, 175-184 formation of active component, 176,177 of Cr-C bonds, 177, 178 propagation centers formation of, 175-178 number of, 197, 198 change in, 183, 184 reduction of active component, 177 Clear Air Act of 1970, 59, 62 Cobalt oxide in catalytic converter, 62 Cocatalysts, 138-141, 152-154 Competitive reactions, 37-43 Copper chromite, oxidation of CO over, 86-88... 

More than three decades ago, skeletal rearrangement processes using alkane or cycloalkane reactants were observed on platinum/charcoal catalysts (105) inasmuch as the charcoal support is inert, this can be taken as probably the first demonstration of the activity of metallic platinum as a catalyst for this type of reaction. At about the same time, similar types of catalytic conversions over chromium oxide catalysts were discovered (106, 107). Distinct from these reactions was the use of various types of acidic catalysts (including the well-known silica-alumina) for effecting skeletal reactions via carbonium ion mechanisms, and these led... 

A wide range of nonacidic metal oxides have been examined as catalysts for aromatization and skeletal isomerization. From a mechanistic point of view, chromium oxide catalysts have been, by far, the most thoroughly studied. Reactions over chromium oxide have been carried out either over the pure oxide, or over a catalyst consisting of chromium oxide supported on a carrier, usually alumina. Depending on its history, the alumina can have an acidic function, so that the catalyst as a whole then has a duel function character. However, in this section, we propose only briefly to outline, for comparison with the metal catalyzed reactions described in previous sections, those reactions where the acidic catalyst function is negligible. 

Reactions over chromium oxide catalysts are often carried out without the addition of hydrogen to the reaction mixture, since this addition tends to reduce the catalytic activity. Thus, since chromium oxide is highly active for dehydrogenation, under the usual reaction conditions (temperature >500°C) extensive olefin formation occurs. In the following discussion we shall, in the main, be concerned only with skeletally distinguished products. Information about reaction pathways has been obtained by a study of the reaction product distribution from unlabeled (e.g. 89, 3, 118, 184-186, 38, 187) as well as from 14C-labeled reactants (89, 87, 88, 91-95, 98, 188, 189). The main mechanistic conclusions may be summarized. Although some skeletal isomerization occurs, chromium oxide catalysts are, on the whole, less efficient for skeletal isomerization than are platinum catalysts. Cyclic C5 products are of never more than very minor impor-... 

In a more recent study of the dehydrogenation of cyclohexane to benzene over a chromium oxide catalyst at 450°C., Balandin and coworkers (Dl) concluded that benzene was formed by two routes. One of these, the so-called consecutive route, involves cyclohexene as a gas phase intermediate, while the other proceeds by a direct route in which intermediate products are not formed in the gas phase. It was concluded that the latter route played a larger role in the reaction than did the former. These conclusions were derived from experiments on mixtures of cyclohexane and Cl4-labeled cyclohexene, which made it possible to evaluate the individual rates Wi, BY, Wt, and Wz in the reaction scheme... 

Qince the discovery (6) of supported chromium oxide catalysts for polymerization and copolymerization of olefins, many fundamental studies of these systems have been reported. Early studies by Topchiev et al. (18) deal with the effects of catalyst and reaction variables on the over-all kinetics. More recent studies stress the nature of the catalytically active species (1, 2, 9,13, 14,16, 19). Using ESR techniques, evidence is developed which indicates that the active species are Cr ions in tetrahedral environment. Other recent work presents a more detailed look at the reaction kinetics. For example, Yermakov and co-workers (12) provide evidence which suggests that chain termination in the polymerization of ethylene on the catalyst surface takes place predominantly by transfer with monomer, and Clark and Bailey (3, 4) give evidence that chain growth occurs through a Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism. 

The hydrogenation of fatty acids or fatty esters is of industrial importance for the production of fatty alcohols. Usually, the hydrogenation is performed in slurry-phase or fixed-bed reactors over copper-chromium oxide catalyst at elevated temperature and pressure.37 Rieke et al. investigated the hydrogenation of methyl dodecanoate over copper-chromium oxide at 280°C and 13.8 MPa H2, in order to study the side reactions that occur during hydrogenation.37 On the basis of the potential reaction routes described by Rieke et al., the pathways leading to C12 alcohol and various byproducts are summarized in Scheme 10.2, with exclusion of the formation and reactions of acetals. It has been found that both catalytic activity and selectivity correlated well with the crystallinity of the copper-chromium ox-... 

Chinchen, G.C. Logan, R.H. Spencer, M.S. Water-gas shift reaction over an iron oxide chromium oxide catalyst I Mass transport effects. Appl. Catal. 1984, 12 (1), 69-88. 

The effect of a wide range of feed concentration of PCE from 30 to 10,000 ppm on the stability of chromium oxide supported on Ti02 and AI2O3 for the removal of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) has been investigated over a fixed bed flow reactor. Both chromium oxide catalysts exhibited stable PCE removal activity up to 100 h of reaction time without any catalyst deactivation when 30 ppm was introduced into the reactor. 

Y. Lei, N. W. Cant, D. L. Trimm, Kinetics of the water-gas shift reaction over a rhodium-promoted iron-chromium oxide catalyst, Chem. Eng. J. 114 (2005) 81-85. 

Chromium oxide catalysts on support polymerize isoprene-like butadiene to solid polymers. Here too, however, during the polymerization process, polymer particles cover the catalyst completely within a few hours from the start of the reaction and retard or stop further polymer formation. The polymerization conditions are the same as those used for butadiene. The reactions can be carried out over fixed bed catalysts containing 3% chromium oxide on Si02-Al203. Conditions are 88°C and 42 kg/cm pressure with the charge containing 20% of isoprene and 80% isobutane [122]. The mixed molybdenum-alumina catalyst with calcium hydride also yields polyisoprene. 

Originally, industrial synthesis of methanol was over a zinc oxide-chromium oxide catalyst that was operated at a nominal pressure of about 35 MPa (350 atm) and temperatures up to about 450°C. This catalyst unfortunately had a tendency to promote the exothermic methanation reaction (CO + 3H2 CH4 + h20) under certain conditions, which led in some instances to severely overheated reactors. This characteristic plus the high cost of compression and relative nonselectivity of the high-pressure process made it uneconomical following the introduction of low-pressure synthesis in the 1960s. 

H. Adkins, Reactions of Hydrogen with Organic Compounds over Chromium Oxide andNickel Catalysts, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1946. 

The fluorination of CF3CH2CI into CF3CH2F over chromium oxides is accompanied by a dehydrofluorination reaction (formation mainly of CF2=CHC1). This dehydrofluorination is responsible for the deactivation of the catalyst. A study of the dehydrofluorination reaction of CF3CH2CI proves that the reaction is favoured when the degree of fluorination of chromium oxide increases. Consequently it would be favoured on strong acid sites. Adding nickel to chromium oxide decreases the formation of alkenes and increases the selectivity for fluorination while the total activity decreases. Two kinds of active sites would be present at the catalyst surface. The one would be active for both the reactions of dehydrofluorination and of fluorination, the other only for the fluorination reaction. 

Other metal oxide catalysts studied for the SCR-NH3 reaction include iron, copper, chromium and manganese oxides supported on various oxides, introduced into zeolite cavities or added to pillared-type clays. Copper catalysts and copper-nickel catalysts, in particular, show some advantages when NO—N02 mixtures are present in the feed and S02 is absent [31b], such as in the case of nitric acid plant tail emissions. The mechanism of NO reduction over copper- and manganese-based catalysts is different from that over vanadia—titania based catalysts. Scheme 1.1 reports the proposed mechanism of SCR-NH3 over Cu-alumina catalysts [31b],... 

The data on the rate of reaction of o-, m-, and p-xylene over vanadium oxide catalyst and of m-xylene over mixed vanadium oxide catalysts (chromium-vanadium and antimony-vanadium) were correlated with the reaction scheme below by the following rate expressions, which are based on the Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanisms where the adsorption of m-xylene is strong. 

Adkins, Reactions of Hydrogen with Organic Compounds over Copper-Chromium Oxide and Nickel Catalysts, p 31, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 1937, Ind I ng tlum Anal I d 4, 342 (19)2)... 

The synthesis of paratolunitrile (PTN) and terephtalonitrile (TPN) by reaction of paraxylene with nitrogen monoxide was studied over a series of aerogel chromium oxide alumina catalysts. The stabilization of the active phase was interpreted on the basis of Cr O support interactions. Kinetic studies show that the reaction follows a "redox" mechanism for the formation of PTN and a Langmuir Hinshelwood mechanism for the production of TPN. 

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