Cobalt oxide-molybdena-alumina

Apart from the degree of reduction affecting overall performance, the nature of the support is also crucial in determining final activity. For supported molyb-dena catalyst, alumina and titania support materials provide best performance. Silica, zirconia, chromia, and zinc oxide are also good support materials, although they produce less active catalysts. Inactive catalysts can be readily synthesized by supporting molybdena upon cobalt oxide, nickel oxide, magnesium oxide, or tin oxide. To date, no correlation between the acidity of the support material and cataljdic activity has been found (304). 

Molybdena catalysts have been with us for quite a long time. The term molybdena is used here to denote a composite catalyst consisting of molybdenum oxide supported on an activated support, commonly alumina. Early it was found that certain transition metals, notably cobalt and nickel, promote the molybdena catalyst for hydrodesulfurization (HDS) reactions. 

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