Molybdenum sulfide hydrogenation catalyst

Although supported Pd catalysts have been the most extensively studied for butadiene hydrogenation, a number of other catalysts have also been the object of research studies. Some examples are Pd film catalysts, molybdenum sulfide, metal catalysts containing Fe, Co, Ni, Ru, Rh, Os, Ir, Pt, Cu, MgO, HCo(CN) on supports, and LaCoC Perovskite. There are many others (79—85). Studies on the weU-characteri2ed Mo(II) monomer and Mo(II) dimer on siUca carrier catalysts have shown wide variations not only in catalyst performance, but also of activation energies (86). 

Iron-chromium oxide catalysts, reduced with hydrogen-containing in the conversion plants, permit reactions temperatures of 350 to 380°C (high temperature conversion), the carbon monoxide content in the reaction gas is thereby reduced to ca. 3 to 4% by volume. Since, these catalysts are sensitive to impurities, cobalt- and molybdenum-(sulfide)-containing catalysts are used for gas mixtures with high sulfur contents. With copper oxide/zinc oxide catalysts the reaction proceeds at 200 to 250°C (low temperature conversion) and carbon monoxide contents of below 0.3% by volume are attained. This catalyst, in contrast to the iron oxide/chromium oxide high temperature conversion catalyst, is, however, very sensitive to sulfur compounds, which must be present in concentrations of less than 0.1 ppm. 

The mechanism of the catalyst activation by sulfur is not understood. The amount of sulfur compounds necessary to maintain or increase the catalyst activity depends in some cases on the stability of the heavy-metal sulfide component of the catalyst. Thus molybdenum sulfide seems to require a higher hydrogen sulfide concentration than tungsten sulfide. However, some catalysts that do not contain elements that can form sulfides under reaction conditions also showed an increased activity when sulfur compounds were added to the feed. Hydrogen sulfide in many cases decreases the catalyst sensitivity to nitrogen compounds and thus causes an activity increase. Sufficient data for pure compounds are not available to permit segregation of these effects. 

Huang, C.S., K.C. Wang, and J. H.W. Haynes, Hydrogenation of Phenanthrene Over a Commercial Cobalt Molybdenum Sulfide Catalyst Under Severe Reaction Conditions, in Liquid Fuels from Coal, eds., Academic Press, 1977. 

In connection with the research on destructive hydrogenation at the Institute of High Pressures, Maslyanskii (224) passed benzene at 475° under 200 atm. hydrogen over molybdenum oxide (1 mole CeH6 16 moles Ha) to produce 58% methylcyclopentane, 14% cyclohexane, 8% 2-methyl-pentane, 5% n-hexane, and 8% unreacted. Over molybdenum sulfide the product distribution was similar. The preparation of these catalysts was described by him in 1940 (223). Isomerization and other conversions accompanying destructive hydrogenation were also pointed out by Prokopets and by others (257,311,314). 

The hydroformylation of alkenes is commonly run using soluble metal carbonyl complexes as catalysts but there are some reports of heterogeneously catalyzed reactions of olefins with hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Almost all of these are vapor phase reactions of ethylene or propylene with hydrogen and carbon monoxide catalyzed by rhodium, " 20 ruthenium,nickel, 22,123 cobalt, 23,124 and cobalt-molybdenum 23 catalysts as well as various sulfided metal catalysts. 23,125,126... 

The activity and selectivity of 12.5% M0/AI2O3 nitrided at various temperatures for the hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of dibenzothiophene and the effect of re-treatment of NH3 on dibenzothiophene HDS were studied. The nitrided catalyst was significantly more active toward the scission of the C-S bond from dibenzothiophene with hydrogenation of dibenzothiophene. The sulfur species accumulated on the surface of the nitrided M0/AI2O3 catalysts by replacement of nitrogen species after reaction was analyzed by XPS measurement. The formation of molybdenum sulfide during the HDS dibenzothiophene led to a decrease in the activity of the nitrided catalyst, which approached that of the sulfided catalyst. 

In conclusion, an extensive literature is available on the reaction networks that are thought to operate in HD,S of various types of thiophenic molecules besides the great advances that have been made in direct studies on molybdenum sulfides and related catalysts, this is another area in which organometallic chemistry has made an impressive contribution to HD,S catalysis, as a number of reaction pathways and mechanisms for the hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis of thiophenes on metal complexes in solution has been well established with the aid of a variety of physical techniques. 

Results presented in Table 1 and those obtained during hydrogenation of cyclopentene indicate that at the experimental conditions supported molybdenum sulfide is rather inactive in hydrogenation. For this reasons the description of the results concerning hydrogenation of cyclopentene will focus on molybdenum free catalysts. 

Catalytic. This method involves the use of hydrogen (or hydrogen-containing gases) and a catalyst such as nickel, copper, platinum, palladium, or molybdenum sulfide. 

---