Elucidating the effect of oxides on the zeolite catalyzed alkylation of benzene with 1-dodecene

In the present work, the effect of oxides on the alkylation of benzene with 1-dodecene was comprehensively investigated over MCM-49 n-heptanol, n-heptaldehyde and n-heptanoic acid were selected as the model oxides herein, and obvious decrease of lifetime could be caused by only trace amount of oxides added in the feedstocks. However, the deactivated catalysts were difficult to be regenerated by extraction with hot benzene. Additionally, coke-burning was also proved to be incapable to regenerate the deactivated catalysts mainly for the dealumination during calcination. Further characterizations complementary with DFT calculations were conducted to demonstrate that the deactivation was mainly due to the firm adsorption of oxides on the acid sites.

Recent advances in spinel-type electrocatalysts for bifunctional oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions

The demand for efficient and environmentally-benign electrocatalysts that help availably harness the renewable energy resources is growing rapidly. In recent years, increasing insights into the design of water electrolysers, fuel cells, and metal–air batteries emerge in response to the need for developing sustainable energy carriers, in which the oxygen evolution reaction and the oxygen reduction reaction play key roles. However, both reactions suffer from sluggish kinetics that restricts the reactivity. Therefore, it is vital to probe into the structure of the catalysts to exploit high-performance bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts. Spinel-type catalysts are a class of materials with advantages of versatility, low toxicity, low expense, high abundance, flexible ion arrangement, and multivalence structure. In this review, we afford a basic overview of spinel-type materials and then introduce the relevant theoretical principles for electrocatalytic activity, following that we shed light on the structure–property relationship strategies for spinel-type catalysts including electronic structure, microstructure, phase and composition regulation,and coupling with electrically conductive supports. We elaborate the relationship between structure and property, in order to provide some insights into the design of spinel-type bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts.

Stability improvement of the Nieuwland catalyst in the dimerization of acetylene to monovinylacetylene

In the process of dimerization of acetylene to produce monovinylacetylene （MVA）,the loss of active component CuCl in the Nieuwland catalyst due to the formation of a dark red precipitate was investigated.The formula of the precipitate was CuCl·2C2H2·1/5NH 3,and it was presumed to be formed by the combination of NH 3,C2H2 and [Cu]-acetylene π-complex,which was an intermediate in the dimerization reaction.The addition of hydrochloric acid into the catalyst can reduce the formation of precipitate,whereas excessive H＋ is unfavorable to the dimerization reaction of acetylene.To balance between high acetylene conversion and low loss rate of CuCl,the optimum mass percentage of HCl in the added hydrochloric acid was determined.The result showed the optimum mass percentage of HCl decreased from 5.0% to 3.2% when the space velocity of acetylene was from 140 h-1 to 360 h-1.The result in this work also indicated the pH of the Nieuwland catalyst should be kept in the range of 5.80-5.97 during the reaction process,which was good for both catalyst life and acetylene conversion.

Effect of solvent on catalytic performance of anhydrous catalyst in acetylene dimerization to monovinylacetylene

The production of monovinylacetylene （MVA） through Cu（I）-catalyzed acetylene dimerization reaction was performed in different reaction media. Based on the analyses of crystals precipitated from the catalyst solution and UV-Vis spectra of the catalysts, the reaction mechanism and solvent dependence were studied. The highest yield of MVA can be obtained when dimethylformamide is used as solvent because of its strong coordination ability to Cu（I）. The activation of C=C bond is presumed to be improved when the catalytic metal ion is coordinated by a solvent with less steric hindrance and electron-rich coordination atom. The results of the present study provide a possible way to accelerate the metal-catalyzed homogeneous reaction of alkyne substrates through careful selection of a solvent.