Ionic liquid assisted acetylene partial hydrogenation over surface of palladium nanoparticles

Abstract

The loss of acetylene partial hydrogenation selectivity over bare palladium catalyst is observed by aging. In this study, 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolinium hydroxide ionic liquid (BMIm[OH]) is loaded on Pd/γ-Al₂O₃ solid catalyst for enhancing the selectivity and different experimental techniques such as surface area measurements and catalytic performance have been performed to characterize the modified catalyst. Results revealed that the addition of ionic liquid maintains higher selectivity of partial hydrogenation over Pd/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst for more than 30h especially at the temperature of acetylene complete removal (>100°C). The activation energies of partial and complete acetylene hydrogenation on bare and ionic liquid loaded Pd/γ-Al₂O₃ are also calculated and utilized to clarify the obtained results.