Iron catalyst, amorphous catalytic activity

First attempts to check this hypothesis [23] revealed a superior catalytic activity of iron in amorphous iron-zirconium alloys in ammonia synthesis compared to the same iron surface exposed in crystalline conventional catalysts. A detailed analysis of the effect subsequently revealed that the alloy, under catalytic conditions, was not amorphous but crystallized into platelets of metastable epsilon-iron supported on Zr-oxide [24, 25]. 

Source of Activity in other Siliceous Catalysts.—Although various oxides can be combined with silica to give amorphous, acidic catalysts, the replacement of aluminium in zeolites (specially non-faujasitic zeolites) has proved to be very difficult with any element other than gallium. Materials of ZSM-5 structure with iron or boron in place of aluminium have been claimed recently, but it is not yet certain that either iron or boron is part of the zeolite lattice or that the catalytic activity observed is not due to residual lattice aluminium. 

Arata and Hino found that better catalysts could be obtained by calcining Fe(OH)3 at 573 — 873 K. The hydroxide was prepared by hydrolyzing FeCls or Fe(N03)3 9H20. The alkylation reactions were carried out at room temperature with 50 cm of toluene solution (0.5 mol 1 ) of benzyl chloride, t-butyl chloride or acetyl chloride and 0.1 g (for benzylation or t-butylation) or 0.5g (for acetylation) of catalyst. Benzylation and t-butylation was completed within 2 min and 10 min, respectively. For acetylation with acetyl chloride, the reaction was slow, the conversion being 28% after 6 h of reaction. The reaction with acetyl bromide is slighdy faster conversion of 30% was obtained after 4 h.The isomer distribution of alkyltoluenes was 42% ortho, 6% meta and 52% para for benzylation and 3% meta and 97% para for butylation with /-butyl chloride. It was presumed that iron chloride formed on the surface of amorphous iron oxide by its reaction with hydrogen chloride is a catalytically active species for alkylation. 

Iron catalysts supported on silica were synthesized by Suslick et al. [20]. The Fe / Si02 catalysts amorphous nature and particle size in the range 3-8 nm and were submitted to catalytic tests Fischer-Tropsch reactions, and their activities were compared with those of a catalyst Fe / Si02 prepared by dry impregnation of the... 

Introduction of a support (i.e. Ti02) to these systems can induce positive effects on the active phase (FeMo), as to avoid an excessive sintering of the particles during the thermal treatment and/or modification of the reduction capacity and the acid properties. The synergy of iron molybdate and the support is therefore another way for improving the catalytic performance of these solids. Such benefitial effects have been detected in bismuth-molybdenum-titania mixed oxides prepared via sol-gel, in addition these solids resulted to be amorphous materials with a unique morphology and extraordinary dispersion of the active phase [12]. These results encouraged us to extend this field to iron molybdenum oxide catalysts. 

Ultrasonic irradiation of iron pentacarbonyl in decane solution in the presence of silica gel produces a silica-supported amorphous nanostructured iron.io The iron particles range in size from 3 to 8 pm. This catalyst is a very active material for Fischer-Tropsch hydrogenation of CO. Figure 2 compares the activity (in terms of turnover frequency of CO molecules converted per catalytic site per second) of silica-supported nanophase iron and conventional silica-supported iron (prepared by the incipient wetness method) as a function of temperature. 

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