Metal oxides dehydration catalysts

In the three-step process acetone first undergoes a Uquid-phase alkah-cataly2ed condensation to form diacetone alcohol. Many alkaU metal oxides, metal hydroxides (eg, sodium, barium, potassium, magnesium, and lanthanium), and anion-exchange resins are described in the Uterature as suitable catalysts. The selectivity to diacetone alcohol is typicaUy 90—95 wt % (64). In the second step diacetone alcohol is dehydrated to mesityl oxide over an acid catalyst such as phosphoric or sulfuric acid. The reaction takes place at 95—130°C and selectivity to mesityl oxide is 80—85 wt % (64). A one-step conversion of acetone to mesityl oxide is also possible. 

CatalyticaHy Active Species. The most common catalyticaHy active materials are metals, metal oxides, and metal sulfides. OccasionaHy, these are used in pure form examples are Raney nickel, used for fat hydrogenation, and y-Al O, used for ethanol dehydration. More often the catalyticaHy active component is highly dispersed on the surface of a support and may constitute no more than about 1% of the total catalyst. The main reason for dispersing the catalytic species is the expense. The expensive material must be accessible to reactants, and this requires that most of the catalytic material be present at a surface. This is possible only if the material is dispersed as minute particles, as smaH as 1 nm in diameter and even less. It is not practical to use minute... 

Catalysis by Metal Oxides and Zeolites. Metal oxides are common catalyst supports and catalysts. Some metal oxides alone are industrial catalysts an example is the y-Al202 used for ethanol dehydration to give ethylene. But these simple oxides are the exception mixed metal oxides are more... 

Fig. 1 compares the activities of vanadium-, cobalt- and nickel- based catalysts in ODH of ethane. Representative catalysts contained between 2.9 and 3.9 wt.% of metal. It is to be pointed out that metal oxide-like species was not present at any of the catalysts, as its presentation is generally the reason in the activity-selectivity decrease. The absence of metal oxide-like species was evidenced by the absence of its characteristic bands in the UV-Vis spectra of hydrated and dehydrated catalysts (not shown in the Figure). The activity of catalysts was compared (i) at 600 °C, (ii) using reaction mixture of 9.0 vol. % ethane and 2.5 vol. % oxygen in helium, and (iii) contact time W/F 0.12 g. i.s.ml 1. These reaction conditions represent the most effective reaction conditions for V-HMS catalysts [4] The ethane conversions, the ethene yields and the selectivity to ethene varied between 13-30 %, 5-16 %, and 37-78 %, respectively, depending on the type of metal species (Co, Ni, V) and support material (A1203, HMS, MFI). 

This acid-catalyzed cleavage of the glycosidic bonds is rather complex and often suffers from a lack of selectivity mainly due to side dehydration or recombination reactions of monosaccharides. In the existing literature, four different classes of solid catalysts are reported (1) cation-exchange resins, (2) siliceous-based materials, (3) metal oxides, and (4) sulfonated amorphous carbons. 

The vanadium oxide species is formed on the surface of the oxide support during the preparation of supported vanadium oxide catalysts. This is evident by the consumption of surface hydroxyls (OH) [5] and the structural transformation of the supported metal oxide phase that takes place during hydration-dehydration studies and chemisorption of reactant gas molecules [6]. Recently, a number of studies have shown that the structure of the surface vanadium oxide species depends on the specific conditions that they are observed under. For example, under ambient conditions the surface of the oxide supports possesses a thin layer of moisture which provides an aqueous environment of a certain pH at point of zero charge (pH at pzc) for the surface vanadium oxide species and controls the structure of the vanadium oxide phase [7]. Under reaction conditions (300-500 C), moisture desorbs from the surface of the oxide support and the vanadium oxide species is forced to directly interact with the oxide support which results in a different structure [8]. These structural... 

To investigate the effect of the synthesis method on the structure-reactivity relationship of the supported metal oxide catalysts, a series of V205/Ti02 catalysts were synthesized by equilibrium adsorption, vanadium oxalate, vanadium alkoxides and vanadium oxychloride grafting [14]. The dehydrated Raman spectra of all these catalysts exhibit a sharp band at 1030 cm characteristic of the isolated surface vanadium oxide species described previously. Reactivity studies with... 

The important groups of dehydration catalysts are oxides, aluminosilicates (both amorphous and zeolitic), metal salts and cation exchange resins. Most work on mechanisms has been done with alumina. 

The same catalysts as for dehydration are suitable for the dehydrosulphidation, i.e. alumina, silica—alumina, zeolites, metal oxides and metal sulphides. (For a comparison of their activities, see ref. 247.)... 

Dehydration and dehydrogenation combined utilizes dehydration agents combined with mild dehydrogenation agents. Included in this class of catalysts are phosphoric add, silica-magnesia, silica-alumina, alumina derived from aluminum chloride, and various metal oxides. 

The most studied dehydration catalysts are the metal oxides (53), but the selectivity of these catalysts in terms of dehydration versus dehydrogenation is not fully understood (54). 

Hydrated and Dehydrated Bulk Metal Oxide Catalysts... 

The molecular structure of supported metal oxides under selective catalytic reduction (SCR) conditions was reported to be the same as that under conditions leading to catalyst dehydration (Wachs et al., 1996). Raman... 

Where the rate is first-order in catalyst,an interpretation of the rate data is possible but always subject to uncertainties in our knowledge of the sorption isotherms of all species involved in the mechanism. Let us consider, for example, the decomposition of a single molecular species on a catalyst surface. An example might be the dehydration of alcohols on the surfaces of metal oxides such as alumina gel at 300 C to give an olefin plus water. This endothermic reaction, which is thermodynamically favored in the gas phase by an entropy increase of about 36 e.u., can be written as... 

Metal oxide catalysts can be classified as oxides of transition elements or as oxides of other typical metals. Typical transition elements include Cr, Fe, Co, Mo, and V, whose oxides catalyze oxidation and reduction reactions by changing the oxidation state of the metal ion. For selective oxidation of hydrocarbons, mixed oxides containing Mo and V are widely used. Oxides of other metals (acidic oxides such as silica and silica-alumina, basic oxides such as CaO and MgO, and amphoteric oxides such as alumina) catalyze acid or base reactions such as alkylation, isomerization, and hydration-dehydration. 

Metal oxides are widely used as catalyst supports. For instance, a-Al203 is employed as a support for catalysts in the partial oxidation of ethylene to ethylene oxide, because a non-reactive material is essential for such applications [141]. However, aluminas are also important catalysts in their own right. Transition aluminas are known to catalyze the isomerization of alkenes, the dehydration of alcohols, H/D exchange reactions and C—H bond activation [142]. Consequently, the development of an understanding of both their bulk and their surface structure has been a key goal in catalysis, with solid-state NMR being widely employed to this end. 

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