Rare earth oxides doped NiO/γ-Al_2O_3 catalyst for oxidative dehydrogenation of cyclohexane

The effect of rare earth oxides （RE=Ce, La, Gd, and Dy） doping of alumina support in NiO/7-A1203 system was investi- gated on its catalytic performance in oxidative dehydrogenation （ODH） of cyclohexane. The physicochemical properties of various samples were followed up through N2 physisorption, temperature programmed reduction （H2-TPR）, X-ray diffraction （XRD）, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS） and potentiometric acid-base titration techniques. In the parent NiO/y-A1203 catalyst, Ni species were found to be strongly interacted with alumina surface. Addition of rare earth dopants to ）＇-A1203 in the catalyst system affected the nickel-alumina interaction and resulted in significant modifications in the catalytic performances in the ODH reaction. The results re- vealed the beneficial role of both La203 and Gd2Os doping in enhancing the ODH catalytic activity and selectivity to cyclohexene. H2-TPR and XPS results indicated that majority of Ni species in NiO/La203 modified T-A1203 were more weakly interacted with La203 and alumina whereas both NiO like species and nickel aluminate were present on the surface. Doping with cerium or dyspro- sium increased the nickel-support interaction and led to a decrease in surface nickel concentration. In case of doping with Ce, surface concentration of cerium oxide was higher than those of the other RE oxides; the doped catalyst reached its steady state activity faster than the other catalysts. The acid-base results suggested that RE metals were interacted most likely with acidic surface hydroxyl groups. The degree of nickel-alumina interaction decreased in the following order： LaAI〉GdAI〉CeAI〉DyA1.

Can lanthanum doping enhance catalytic performance of silver in direct propylene epoxidation over NaMoAg/SiO_2?

In the attempt to reduce surface free energy of silica to improve interaction of silica with silver, silica was doped by different amounts of low surface energy lanthanum, La_2O_3, through impregnation. The doped and undoped silica were used as supports for preparation of Na/Ag/Mo/La_2O_3-SiO_2 catalysts. Catalytic performances of the catalysts were evaluated in direct epoxidation of propylene(DPO) using molecular oxygen under atmospheric pressure and without adding hydrogen. Adding 5 wt%La to the Na/Ag/Mo/SiO_2 catalyst improves both the catalysts electivity in DPO and its stability over 20h of time-on-stream.The characterization results show that La_2O_3 species interact strongly with silver particles on the silica surface which result in significant improvement in the dispersion profile of silver and marked decrease in the size of silver nanoparticles(AgNPs). The estimated mean diameter of AgNPs is ca. 4.0 nm in Na/Ag/Mo/5 wt%La_2O_3-SiO_2, which is smaller than that(53.9 nm) found in Na/Ag/SiO_2. The presence of subnanometer AgNPs on Ag/La_2O_3-SiO_2 prior addition of MoO_3 and NaCl to the sample can enhance the mutual electronic synergism between Ag, MoO_3 and Na for selective production of propylene oxide.